Abstract:
A system and method are disclosed for providing a custom ring tone in connection with a call. In a particular embodiment, a method includes receiving, at a communication system, an indication to provide a customized ring tone associated with a call to a callee device. The method further includes delivering at least a portion of the customized ring tone to the callee device from the communication system when the callee device is determined to be operable to output the customized ring tone.

Description:
PRIORITY CLAIM 
     This application is a continuation of and claims priority from U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/570,409, filed Sep. 30, 2009 and entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR FACILITATING A CUSTOM RING IN CONNECTION WITH A CALL,” which is a continuation of and claims priority from U.S. Pat. No. 7,616,741, filed Feb. 6, 2004 and entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR FACILITATING A CUSTOM RING IN CONNECTION WITH A CALL,” which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety. 
    
    
     FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE 
     The present disclosure relates generally to telecommunication services, and more specifically to a system and method for facilitating a custom ring in connection with a call. 
     BACKGROUND 
     Most telephone service subscribers recognize that a ringing telephone indicates an incoming telephone call. In many cases, the telephone station rings in response to the receipt of a ring signal. For example, a telephone company providing Plain Old Telephony Service (POTS) may receive a call for a given subscriber and may initiate the sending of a ring signal to the home of that subscriber. A common technique involves feeding a 75 Volt, 20 Hz Alternating Current ringing current down one wire of a twisted pair telephone line. The signal is not often applied constantly to the line. The signal is usually applied in a pattern. For example, a United States service provider may use a repeated pattern that is two seconds on and four seconds off. 
     In some circumstances, a service provider may elect to use different ring signal patterns. For example, some service providers have begun to offer a distinctive ringing option to their subscribers. A subscriber may have multiple telephone numbers assigned to one physical telephone line. By assigning different signal patterns to each of the different telephone numbers, a service provider may be able to cause a subscriber telephone station to ring with a distinctive ring tone—indicating to the subscriber which of the telephone numbers is being called. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       It will be appreciated that for simplicity and clarity of illustration, elements illustrated in the Figures have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements are exaggerated relative to other elements. Embodiments incorporating teachings of the present disclosure are shown and described with respect to the drawings presented herein, in which: 
         FIG. 1  presents a flow diagram for a ring tone process incorporating teachings of the present disclosure; 
         FIG. 2  shows one embodiment of a custom ring system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure; and 
         FIG. 3  illustrates a block diagram for a piece of customer premises equipment that may be used to implement teachings disclosed herein. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Embodiments below describe, in part, different approaches for utilizing custom ring tones in a packetized voice and/or Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) environment. From a high level, VoIP technology relates to a set of facilities for managing the delivery of voice information using the Internet Protocol (IP). Delivery of voice information using IP involves sending audio information in discrete packets rather than sending the information across the more traditional circuit-committed protocols of the public switched telephone network (PSTN). Though many of the embodiments focus on VoIP technology, other packetized call and/or circuit-based techniques may be used when implementing teachings disclosed herein. 
     An example technique incorporating teachings of the present disclosure may include receiving a signal that indicates a call directed to a VoIP-enabled telephone line and/or telephone station. In response, it may be determined that the called party subscribes to a custom ring service and/or employs custom ring capable equipment. If the calling party has included custom ring information or elects to add custom ring information to the call, the custom ring information may be passed to the called party to facilitate a custom ring in connection with the call. In some embodiments, the custom ring information may include a file having a playable file format like .WAV, MP3, .MIDI, .AU, .AIFF, and/or some other format. 
     By employing the teachings disclosed herein, an operator or telephone service provider may be able to offer a custom ring service to subscribers. The service may require and/or be implemented by specialized customer premises equipment (CPE). In some embodiments, the service may be implemented within a network environment. The network environment may include a PSTN, a cable network, the Public Internet, a managed IP network, and/or some other network capable of supporting the packet-based communication of information. The service may allow, for example, calling party selected ring tones. In other words, a system incorporating teachings of the present disclosure may allow the calling party to dictate the ring tone heard by the called party. 
     In some embodiments, the ring tone may include a tune, a verbal announcement, or some other indication of an incoming call. Some ring tones may even represent a branded message or advertisement for the calling party. For example, a business may want the ring tone heard by the called party to include an announcement like “Company XYZ is calling.” Allowing the calling party to select the ring tone for its own outbound calls may create several unique opportunities—opportunities that might otherwise be difficult to implement in systems that rely on the called party to select and/or assign ring tones. 
     Called party assigning of ring tones may occur, for example, in the cellular domain. With a cellular telephone, a user may download multiple ring tones and assign a unique ring tone to some or all of the contacts included in an address book stored on the cellular telephone. When someone calls, the called cellular telephone may compare the caller identification (Caller ID) information associated with the call to the contacts stored in the phone&#39;s address book. If the phone “recognizes” the calling party and the user has assigned a unique ring tone to that calling party, the telephone may play the assigned ring tone to let the user know who is calling. With such a system, a calling party does not influence which ring tone plays when he or she calls. 
     A system like the one depicted in  FIG. 2  may allow ring tones to be sent in connection with packetized calls. For example, a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) version of the system may include IP packets containing custom ring tone information in the collection of packets establishing the VoIP call. The ring tone packets may, for example, be loaded in front of other packets and/or placed in a specific location to facilitate an operator&#39;s custom ring service. In operation, such a system may recognize that a called party has some specialized CPE capable of playing a calling party selected ring tone to indicate an incoming call. The calls themselves may include voice calls, data calls, and/or a combination thereof. With such a system, a VoIP or some other point-to-point capable network may be able to overcome some of the limitations and cost challenges typically associated with offering distinctive ring services in a communication network. 
       FIG. 1  presents a flow diagram for a ring tone process  10  incorporating teachings of the present disclosure. At step  12 , a calling party may begin the process of establishing a custom ring account. In some systems, an administrator may be able to assist and/or remotely manage the establishment of accounts. For example, an administrator may be presented with a graphical user interface (GUI) at a remote location. The administrator may interact with the GUI to effectuate the creation or modification of one or more custom rings and their respective triggers and messages. 
     In operation, a user or subscriber may be prompted at step  14  to provide custom ring information and, at step  16 , the information may be recorded into memory. The memory may be, for example, local to a user&#39;s CPE, within a remote network-based repository, or both. 
     At step  18 , a system implementing at least a portion of process  10  may receive a request for call completion. The request may be indicated by a calling signal communicated to a network node, an intra-device signal communicated within a piece of CPE, and/or some other technique capable of indicating a desire to make a call. Whatever format a triggering event takes, the process  10  may advance to step  20 , and it may be determined that the calling party desires to send custom ring tone information to the called party. 
     At step  22 , the type of CPE being called may be determined. If the CPE supports advanced functionality like specialized ring tone features, the process  10  may advance to step  24 . At step  24 , it may be determined that a called party does allow for calling party selected ring tones and at step  26  the calling party&#39;s ring tone information may be accessed. At step  28 , a switch may establish a connection to the called party CPE and a signal may be communicated at step  30  to the specialized CPE such that the called party CPE outputs a custom ring. The specialized ring may have been selected by the calling party and could include a spoken message explaining that the incoming call is from the calling party, a tune, and/or some other special ring tone. 
     A system implementing process  10  may determine at step  32  whether or not the call was answered. If the call was not answered, the process  10  may advance to step  34  and a calling party message may be recorded for the called party. In some embodiments, the message may include a representation of some or all of the custom ring information. If the call was answered, the process  10  may stop, at step  36 . 
     If it was determined at step  22  that the called CPE does not have the appropriate advanced feature set, the process  10  may skip to step  38 . At step  38 , a system implementing process  10  may send a more traditional non-custom ring signal to indicate the existence of an incoming call and advance to stop, at step  36 . 
     As indicated above, a business may elect to use a custom ring tone service to deliver a branded ring tone like “Company XYZ is calling.” Some subscribers may elect to block such ring tones. Other subscribers may elect to block all calling party selected ring tones, to block some subset of calling party ring tones, to allow all calling party selected ring tones, or to allow some subset of calling party selected ring tones. For example, a subscriber may maintain a list of calling parties from whom the subscriber will allow calling party selected ring tones. The subscriber may not want to maintain such a list and may elect instead to allow ring tones from all calling parties that do not block or hide their respective Caller ID. 
     However defined, a system incorporating teachings of the present disclosure may provide some mechanism for allowing called parties to control or limit the delivery and/or playing of calling party selected ring tones. As such, at step  24 , the process  10  may allow for determining if a called party wants to receive a calling party selected ring tone from the then-currently calling party. If the called party does not want to receive the calling party&#39;s custom ring tone, the process  10  may advance to step  38 . At step  38 , a system implementing process  10  may send a more traditional non-custom ring signal to indicate the existence of an incoming call and advance to stop at step  36 . 
       FIG. 2  shows one embodiment of a custom ring system  40  that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure. As depicted, system  40  may include a communication network  42 , which may include the PSTN, a cable network, a wireless service provider network, and/or some other network capable of supporting the communication of packetized information and/or point to point connections. Network  42  may be communicatively coupled to other networks like Public Internet  44  and cellular network  46 . 
     In some embodiments, the network  42  may provide telecommunication services to several subscribers. As shown, the network  42  is communicatively coupled to premises  48 ,  50 , and  52 , and each of these premises has at least one telephone station identified as telephones  54 ,  56 , and  58 , respectively. These telephones may be capable of VoIP communications and the subscribers associated with each of these telephones may be VoIP service subscribers of the operator of the network  42 . 
     In addition to the depicted VoIP telephones, a given subscriber may have other electronic devices capable of receiving incoming calls. For example, the subscriber associated with premises  48  may have other telephonic devices like computer  60  and wireless communication device  62 , which may be capable of communicating with a node  64  of cellular network  46 . Wireless communication device  62  may be capable of Radio Frequency communication  66  that employs a 2.5 G mobile technology like GPRS or EDGE. Device  62  may also employ higher bandwidth offerings like 3 G/UMTS. 
     In operation, the system  40  may rely on memory  68  to maintain a list  70  of subscriber information for a collection of subscribers that may possess CPE capable of outputting a custom ring tone. The collection of subscribers may include the subscribers residing at premises  48 ,  50 , and  52 , and the information may include Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephone numbers for each of the subscribers, calling party block lists, and/or alternative device addresses for the subscribers. In practice, some of the subscriber&#39;s devices may be capable of playing calling party selected ring tones while others are not. As such, the system  40  may allow for delivery of custom ring information to one of the subscriber&#39;s devices and delivery of more traditional ring signals to another of the subscriber&#39;s devices. 
     Memory  68  and/or some other storage location may also include a calling party custom ring list  72  that includes the collection of subscribers who have pre-stored custom ring tones and a pointer to a file representing the custom ring of each of those subscribers. 
     Within system  40 , a calling signal may be received via a network interface  74 . The calling signal may indicate a desire to complete a call from a calling party to a called party and may be passed to a network node like computing platform  76 , which may be implemented as one or more servers, computing devices, engines, mechanisms, and/or some other combination of hardware, software, and firmware. In some embodiments, computing platform  76 , memory  68 , and interface  74  may be associated with a ring tone center  77 . 
     In operation, network interface  74  may receive a calling signal and output a trigger signal. A VoIP switch  78  may be responsive to the trigger signal and may be capable of supporting a plurality of simultaneous connections with remote premises. As such, VoIP switch  78  may also be able to initiate outbound VoIP calls to a plurality of subscribers. Platform  76  may also include a CPE status mechanism  80 , which may, in connection with list  70 , be capable of recognizing that a subscriber associated with premises  50  has a piece of VoIP CPE capable of outputting a custom ring tone. In response to this recognition, the call to that subscriber may be passed to an Internet Protocol (IP) custom ring tone server  82 . Server  82  may take over the VoIP call and deliver a custom ring tone to the subscriber to indicate the existence of the call. 
     The to-be-delivered ring tone may have been pre-recorded and associated with a given calling party ID. For example, the subscriber associated with premises  52  may want her calls to be recognizable and may have requested delivery of a custom ring to parties that she calls. A calling signal indicating that the subscriber at premises  52  has placed a call to the subscriber at premises  50  may have been received by network interface  74  and the subscriber at premises  50  may have been called as a result. In addition, a pre-recorded message representing the custom ring tone of the subscriber at premises  52  may have been played to the subscriber at premises  50 —informing that subscriber that the call was from the subscriber at premises  52 . 
     In some embodiments, platform  76  may be capable of interacting with different types of networks. For example, platform  76  may include a POTS interface  84 , an xDSL interface  86 , and/or a cable network interface  88 . Other network interfaces could include a wide area and/or local area wireless network interface, a cellular network interface, and/or an interface to Public Internet  44 . 
     Though the above described embodiment employs engines, mechanisms, and servers, to implement the features and functions of a VoIP custom ring service, other implementations and embodiments could be employed without departing form the teachings of the present disclosure. For example, many of the operations may be implemented by computing platform  76 . Computing platform  76  may have access to a computer readable medium holding computer-readable data capable of directing platform  76  and related devices to maintain information representing a calling party selected ring tone, to recognize an event trigger signaling a request to place a VoIP call from the calling party to a called party, to initiate completion of the VoIP call, and to direct delivery of the information to a telephonic device of the called party in a format that allows the telephonic device to output the calling party selected ring tone as an indication of an incoming call. 
     The computer-readable medium may also have additional computer-readable data to determine if the called party desires delivery of the information. As indicated above, a business may elect to use a branded ring tone like “Company XYZ is calling.” Some subscribers may elect to block such ring tones. Other subscribers may elect to block all calling party selected ring tones, to block some subset of calling party ring tones, to allow all calling party selected ring tones, or to allow some subset of calling party selected ring tones. For example, a subscriber may maintain a list of calling parties from whom the subscriber will allow calling party selected ring tones. The subscriber may not want to maintain such a list and may elect instead to allow ring tones from all calling parties that do not block or hide their respective Caller ID. However defined, a system incorporating teachings of the present disclosure may provide some mechanism for allowing called parties to control or limit the delivery and/or playing of calling party selected ring tones. 
     In preferred embodiments, messaging center  77  may support and process multiple calling signals and multiple custom rings. To facilitate implementation of a custom ring service, system  40  may have an administrator interface that allows for local and/or remote creation and modification of custom ring subscribers and lists. For example, an administrator may access such an interface and create an account for a new custom ring subscriber. With the help of the interface, the administrator may access a subscriber database to create the new account, which may be little more than a list of Caller ID information for the subscriber and some subscriber selected custom ring information. The administrator may then link and/or associate the account with a given calling signal and a given message file. The administrator may then “approve” the list for live operation—such that if the associated calling signal is received, messaging center  77  will begin attempting delivery of custom ring information in connection with VoIP telephone calls from the listed Caller ID numbers of the new subscriber. 
     As mentioned above, a system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include several components. Depending on design objectives, a system designer may elect to incorporate at least some of the custom ring tone functionality into a piece of calling party CPE. The calling party CPE may include, for example, an electronic device operable to support telephonic communication. The electronic device may be a wireline telephone, a cellular telephone, a computer, a personal digital assistant, a modem, a router, some other device, and/or a combination thereof. 
     As mentioned above,  FIG. 3  shows a piece of CPE that may be used to implement teachings disclosed herein. As shown, CPE  90  appears to be a laptop computer. Whatever its form factor, depicted CPE  90  may include a housing component  92  that at least partially defines an enclosure. A memory  94  may be located within the enclosure and may store ring tone information representing a custom ring tone. CPE  90  may also present a user with a surface  96 . Surface  96  may include a keyboard, a mouse, arrow keys, and/or some other form of user interface. The user interface may be capable of receiving user inputs that could indicate, for example, a desire to place a call to a called party. 
     As shown, CPE  90  presents a browsing environment  98  and a browser bar  100  on a display  102 . Within environment  98 , a user may be presented with a GUI element  104  representing a stored address book. As shown by outlined box  106 , the user may have selected to call “Steve”. In operation, CPE  90  may have an output engine  108  capable of initiating communication of the ring tone information to a called party like Steve such that a telephonic device of the called party outputs the selected ring tone as an indication of the call. 
     As shown, CPE  90  may also present a GUI element  110  that provides an indication or status of the call to “Steve”. Various types of information may be included in GUI element  110  including, for example, Steve&#39;s name, telephone number, the calling party selected Ring Tone that is assigned to Steve, and the status of the call. Also depicted in connection with CPE  90  is a network connector  112 . Network connector  112  may represent, for example, coaxial cable, twisted pair, fiber, an RF link such as GPRS or 802.11(x), and/or some other linking mechanism forming at least a part of a link communicatively coupling CPE  90  to a broader network and/or other telephonic devices. 
     In various embodiments, the telephones, computers, devices, servers, and/or platforms, described above, may take forms including wireless and cordless phones, personal digital assistants, cellular telephones, mobile telephones, laptop computers, desktop computers, mainframes, PSTN switches, Ethernet switches, routers, gateways, hardware, firmware, software, work stations, other options having some level of computing capability, and/or a combination thereof. 
     The methods and systems described herein provide for an adaptable implementation. Although certain embodiments have been described using specific examples, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the invention is not limited to these few examples. Note also, that although certain illustrative embodiments have been shown and described in detail herein, along with certain variants thereof, many other varied embodiments may be constructed by those skilled in the art. 
     The benefits, advantages, solutions to problems, and any element(s) that may cause any benefit, advantage, or solution to occur or become more pronounced are not to be construed as a critical, required, or essential feature or element of the present invention. Accordingly, the present disclosure is not intended to be limited to the specific form set forth herein, but on the contrary, it is intended to cover such alternatives, modifications, and equivalents, as can be reasonably included within the scope of the claims below.