Abstract:
A uniform resource locator (URL) used for Internet access is employed as a name for dialing a plain old telephone service (POTS) voice call to a party associated with a specific Internet site. Due to the worldwide nature of the Internet, the large size of many of the companies with Internet sites, the temporary unavailability of specific sites, and for other reasons, it can be extremely difficult to place a telephone call to the appropriate individual, department, or other representatives with knowledge about a specific Internet site. The present invention provides an automated “name translation” from a URL to a target telephone number in response to requests initiated within the telephone system by a calling party. The entity owning the website achieves improved availability to the public via voice telephone calls because the URL names are convenient, familiar, and meaningful to customers. The invention expands the role of domain name system (DNS) servers by making them a tie-point for a voice calling service.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     Not Applicable. 
     STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH 
     Not Applicable. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates to establishing a voice telephone call with an entity having a presence on the Internet when a calling party does not know the telephone number of the called party. 
     In establishing a POTS (plain old telephone service) voice call between a calling party and a called party, the calling party must dial a telephone number that identifies the telephone of the called party. Sometimes, this identification may be through an intermediate number which is translated into an actual destination telephone number, such as in a toll-free (i.e., “800” number) service. Nevertheless, the number dialed uniquely identifies the called party. 
     Even when telephone numbers have been known or used in the past by the calling party, they can be easily misplaced and are easily forgotten because they are usually just a string of arbitrary numbers. In the event that the calling party does not know an appropriate telephone number for the called party, they may search for a telephone number using telephone company directory assistance, published telephone books, on-line search engines, and other sources. Typically in such a search, at least a personal or business name of the called party must be known. If the name is not accurately specified, then the number search can be difficult and time consuming. Even with the correct name, searching can still be inconvenient and/or time-consuming. For a called party that is a commercial enterprise desiring to be called by potential customers, any significant difficulty in identifying the appropriate telephone number can result in lost business, for example. 
     Many businesses and other entities seek to interact with the public (e.g., consumers) via the Internet. The Internet comprises a plurality of interconnected computer networks. Each communication packet sent over the Internet includes fields that specify the source and destination address of the packet according to Internet Protocol (IP) addresses assigned to the network interface nodes involved. Currently, assigned addresses comprise 32 bits, although future standards allow for 128-bit addresses. The 32-bit addresses are normally written by breaking the 32 bits into 4 groups of 8 bits each and writing the decimal equivalents of each group separated by periods (e.g., 208.25.106.10). 
     Since numerical IP addresses are inconvenient to use and remember, a protocol for assigning and accessing logical names is used known as the domain name system (DNS). DNS servers are deployed within the Internet which perform a translation function between a logical domain name (also known as a uniform resource locator, or URL) such as “sprint.com” and its numerical equivalent “208.25.106.10”. After receiving an IP address back from a DNS server, a computer can forward data packets to the IP address and establish a connection or session with the remote computer. A URL or other logical name being used by an entity may become one of the most familiar labels that the public associates with the entity since they can be chosen to be both descriptive and easy to remember. 
     A user views web-pages of a desired Website within a browser application that navigates to web-pages in response to URL&#39;s input by the user within the browser. In the event that a Website user may wish to have a telephonic voice call with a contact representative of the business or entity, appropriate telephone numbers are oftentimes (but not always) displayed on the web-pages themselves (or means may be provided to actually complete a voice connection over the Internet itself, known as voice over IP or VOIP). However, users may still not be able to identify a desired telephone number or create an Internet-based voice connection because 1) no telephone number or VOIP link is given, 2) a Website may be temporarily unavailable due to equipment failure, and 3) there may be many potential customers that do not have access or do not desire to use the Internet. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention has the advantage of allowing a POTS voice telephone call to be placed to an entity having a presence on the Internet when a calling party does not know the telephone number of the called entity and without the need of the calling party to have any access to the Internet itself. All that is needed is the URL used by the entity in connection with a web-page. Web-pages would no longer need to explicitly list a telephone number. Furthermore, the URL may even be known to those who are not Internet users because of advertising or other publicity. 
     In one aspect of the invention, a method is provided for establishing a POTS call between a calling party and a called party wherein the called party is identified by uniform resource locator (URL) information. A first POTS call is established from the calling party to a DNS lookup service using a predetermined access number. The URL information is transferred from the calling party to the DNS lookup service via the first POTS call. A target telephone number of the called party is retrieved from a DNS database of the DNS lookup service in response to the URL information. A second POTS call is established between the calling party and the called party in response to the target telephone number. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a telecommunications system for completing POTS calls according to the present invention. 
     FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing normal operation of a local exchange carrier in the present invention. 
     FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing normal operation of an interexchange carrier switch. 
     FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing operation of an interexchange carrier service control point (SCP) according to one preferred embodiment. 
     FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing operation of an intelligent voice response (IVR) unit in the present invention. 
     FIG. 6 shows an example record in a DNS database including POTS telephone number data. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     Referring to FIG. 1, the objective of the present invention is to establish a voice telephone call between a calling party having requestor premises equipment  10  and a called party having premises equipment  11 . Equipment  10  and  11  may be comprised of standard telephone units with touch-tone (DTMF) dialing, for example. Requestor premises equipment  10 , in particular, may further be comprised of a computer modem for more sophisticated data exchange and for automated dialing as described later. Equipment  10  and  11  are to be interconnected via a public switched telephone network (PSTN)  12  in a plain old telephone service (POTS) voice call based on the calling party&#39;s knowledge of 1) a telephone number for a URL-based dialing service, and 2) a URL of the called party. 
     The requestor initiates a call to the URL-based dialing service by connecting with a PSTN switch  13  of their local exchange carrier (LEC A) and dialing a predetermined access number for the service. The DNS service can be either a public or a private service. The access number may be comprised of a normal direct dialed telephone connection or may be a special service access code (SAC) telephone number such as non-geographic toll-free “800” or fee-type “900” numbers that are translated to a geographic telephone number by equipment within the PSTN. In this example, the final destination (i.e., telephone  11 ) is reached via a PSTN switch  14  of a local exchange carrier LEC B. A call between LEC A and LEC B may be completed through an interexchange carrier (IXC) which operates a PSTN switch  15 , which in this example is also connected to the DNS lookup service of the present invention. The DNS lookup service could alternatively be accessible through an LEC. 
     Internet  16  includes a web-page  17  associated with an entity (e.g., an individual, organization, or business enterprise) that is available for receiving telephone calls via telephone unit  11 . Web-page  17  is reachable within Internet  16  according to a URL  18  whereby an assigned domain name is resolved to the corresponding IP address using any of the plurality of DNS servers deployed within Internet  16 . 
     IXC switch  15  has an associated service control point (SCP)  20  connected to an intelligent voice response (IVR) device  21  which acts as an interface between requestor equipment  10  and a DNS server  22 . In the embodiment shown, server  22  is connected within Internet  16  so that a DNS database can be maintained and updated within DNS server  22  in a conventional manner. DNS server  22  could alternatively be separate from (i.e., not connected to) the Internet, in which case a DNS database residing in server  22  would have to be separately updated. 
     SCP  20  provides switching logic for switch  15  as part of an advanced intelligent network (AIN) architecture. Additional SCP&#39;s (not shown) are typically also connected to LEC switches  13  and  14  in a conventional manner. 
     IVR  21  performs the functions of receiving URL information from a requester, querying the DNS server for a target telephone number corresponding to the URL information, and initiating steps to establish the desired POTS call from the requestor to the web-page owner or operator. As used herein, IVR device refers to any computerized equipment adapted for interfacing between a telephone system and a computer network. Various technologies can be employed for the acquisition of the URL itself. IVR  21  may include a voice recognizer so that a calling party can speak (or spell) the URL. Alternatively, the calling party may input information using touch-tone (i.e., DTMF) signals in order to spell out the URL in conjunction with an interactive menu created using voice synthesis by IVR  21 . Where requestor premises equipment  10  includes a personal computer and a modem, the URL information can be transmitted to IVR  21  using dial-up networking, for example. 
     IVR  21  preferably employs a TCP/IP interface with DNS server  22  and formats DNS lookup requests to include 1) a URL associated with a target telephone number, and 2) identification of the service type of “POTS voice service.” After DNS server  22  responds with the target telephone number at which a representative of the URL can be reached, IVR  21  reports data representing the target telephone number so that the desired POTS voice call can be established. So that no further action is required at the requestor premises equipment end, the IVR side of the existing call between equipment  10  and IVR  21  can be transferred by SCP  20  to LEC B and to equipment  11 . Alternatively, the target telephone number (i.e., dial string) can be reported directly to requestor premises equipment  10  so that a separate POTS call can be originated. For example, IVR  21  may generate the target telephone in synthesized speech transmitted to the calling party over the existing POTS call. Alternatively, if a dial-up networking modem connection is established then the target telephone number can be transmitted digitally and the modem in equipment  10  can automatically dial the target telephone number. In addition, if equipment  10  has adequate intelligence it can cache the target telephone number in association with the original URL so that subsequent calls can be made without the need to contact the DNS lookup service. 
     FIG. 2 shows operations of the LEC A switch. In step  24 , the LEC A switch is waiting for a call. In step  25 , the calling party wishes to initiate a POTS voice call with a representative of the entity associated with a web-page having a known URL, and so they dial a predetermined access number for the URL-based DNS telephone lookup service. The LEC switch and any associated SCP determine, in step  26 , whether the predetermined access number is owned by the LEC. If it is, then the requester (i.e., calling party) is connected to a selected circuit corresponding to the access number in step  27 . If the access number is not owned by the LEC, then the call is directed to a selected carrier (e.g., an IXC or LEC corresponding to the access number) in step  28 . 
     FIG. 3 shows operation of an IXC switch when the DNS lookup service is operated by the IXC. In step  30 , the IXC switch is waiting for arrival of a new call. In step  31 , a call is received that was directed to the IXC switch by an LEC switch. A check is made in step  32  to determine whether the destination of the call is known in this IXC. If so, then the incoming call (i.e., the requestor or calling party) is connected to the selected circuit leading to the DNS lookup service in step  33 . Otherwise, a network error is signaled in step  34 . 
     FIG. 4 shows operation of a service control point associated with a switch where the DNS lookup service resides. In step  40 , the SCP is waiting for a servicing request. In step  41 , a request is received. In one preferred embodiment, a request may relate either to an incoming call from a requestor to be translated to (i.e., interconnected with) the DNS lookup service or to an already pending call that is to be transferred from the DNS lookup service to a final destination or target telephone number of the called party. Thus, in step  42 , a check is made to determine whether the received request is one for a translation to the lookup service (i.e., a remapping of the predetermined access number to the real telephone number of the IVR). If yes, then switch information (e.g., the access number that was dialed) is collected in step  43 . In step  44 , the SCP finds an IVR for performing the desired URL lookup. The connection to the IVR is completed in step  45  by the SCP configuring the corresponding switch. Steps  43 - 44  would not be necessary if the predetermined access number used by the calling party is the same as the real telephone number of the IVR. 
     If the request to the SCP was not a translation request in step  42 , then a check is made in step  46  to determine whether it is a request to transfer a pending call out to a final destination. Such a transfer may be accomplished using release link trunking (RLT) as is available in many commercial SCP devices. If yes, then the SCP signals the corresponding switch to transfer the call to the target telephone number contained in the RLT request in step  47 . Otherwise, an error is signaled in step  48 . Steps  46  and  47  would not be used in an embodiment wherein the IVR reports the target number back to the requestor via the pending call so that the requestor can direct dial the target number. 
     FIG. 5 shows operation of the interactive voice response unit, which is essentially a computer device for bridging between the PSTN system and the DNS server. In step  50 , the IVR is waiting for a request. The IVR is connected to an incoming call in step  51 . Once a call is answered, the IVR prompts the requestor for a transfer of the URL information in step  52 . The prompts may be comprised of 1) synthesized or recorded voice prompts to guide a calling party through the process of entering URL information using DTMF tones or spoken commands, 2) handshaking signals for a modem session for dialup networking when the requestor equipment includes a computer device, or 3) any other desired method for signaling or data transfer via the POTS voice channel for which the requester has any necessary hardware. 
     The IVR receives the URL information that the calling party has identified (e.g., a domain name such as “www.Sprint.com”) and formats a DNS lookup request message in step  53 . In step  54 , the IVR transmits the DNS request to the DNS server via a TCP/IP connection therebetween. The computer network connection to the DNS server can be within a private network or can be a connection to a DNS server residing on the Internet, for example, provided that the DNS server contains a DNS database compiled with URL data correlating respective web-pages (i.e., domain names) with respective telephone numbers for respective web-page contact persons. The DNS server may also contain respective IP addresses so that it is used for dual purposes of DNS lookup for Internet traffic and for telephone contacts. The entities owning the various domain names can provide the telephone contact numbers to be associated with their URL&#39;s in the domain name system. 
     In step  55 , the DNS server returns the target telephone number to the IVR. A check is made to determine whether a valid POTS telephone number was returned in step  56 . If not, then an error is signaled in step  57 . Otherwise, the IVR reports the target telephone number in step  58  so that a POTS call can be completed to the respective web-page contact. 
     FIG. 5 shows two alternative embodiments for completing the POTS call to the final destination. In the first embodiment wherein the pending call is transferred, the IVR transmits the target telephone number to the SCP along with an RLT request in step  60 . The SCP then transfers the pending call to the target phone number in step  61 . In the second embodiment wherein the requestor initiates a new, direct-dialed call, the IVR transmits the target telephone number to the requestor premises equipment in step  62 . This transmission may comprise a synthesized voice report or a digital modem signal, for example. Having acquired the target telephone number, the requestor premises equipment direct dials the target number in step  63  (e.g., manually dialed by hand or automatically dialed by modem). 
     FIG. 6 shows a portion of a DNS database for practicing the present invention. A group of DNS records are stored in a standardized format, with each record providing an associated domain name or URL together with various data types and their respective data fields. For example, a DNS record  66  for the URL “www.Sprint.com” provides for lookup of a respective IP address as identified by the “Host Address” data type. In addition, POTS telephone data is provided as identified by the “POTS” data type.