Abstract:
A method and apparatus for providing control and monitoring of a group of plain old telephone service (POTS) stations from one control station. Incoming calls to the POTS stations are intercepted and the data describing the call is sent to the control station. The control station then provides directions for blocking the call, completing the call to the original POTS destination, or completing the call to another POTS destination. Outgoing calls are also monitored so that the control station maintains an up to date record of which stations are busy and which stations are idle. Advantageously, the control station communicates with the switch serving these POTS stations by analog signals (FSK) and/or DTMF thus overcoming the limitations on distance requirements for digital signaling.

Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD  
       [0001]     This invention relates to arrangements for controlling telecommunications calls from customer premises equipment.  
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0002]     In the telecommunications field, there are many arrangements available for directing calls to an appropriate destination within a group of associated destinations. In most cases, a computer is used to direct incoming calls, received with an identity of a caller, to the most appropriate destination. One such system is described in Gechter et al.: U.S. Pat. No. 5,036,535, issued Jul. 30, 1991.  
         [0003]     A problem with such systems is their high expense. In many cases, a digital connection is required between the system and a serving central office switch; this limits the distance between the system and a serving central office.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0004]     The above problem is alleviated in accordance with this invention wherein the customer premises equipment comprises a single data line for transmitting either analog data or voice and one or more conventional (Plain Old Telephone Services (POTS)) lines. Calls may be received in either the data/voice station or one of the POTS stations depending on the number called by the caller. If the call is for the number associated with one of the POTS stations, the call is not completed until a query has been made by the serving switch to the control station and the data station has generated a response for completing the call to the initial station, completing the call to another telephone number, or rejecting the call. The service is used in conjunction with incoming caller line identification so that the data station can use the identity of the caller to decide whether to accept the call at the dialed station, redirect the call to another station, or reject the call. Advantageously, only the control station connected to the data line needs to have an intelligent station. Advantageously, inexpensive voice band analog signaling arrangements can be used between the control station and the switch, e.g., dual tone multifrequency (DTMF) or frequency shift keying (FSK).  
         [0005]     In accordance with one preferred embodiment, the data line and therefore the control intelligent station is informed whenever one of the other stations makes a call. For outgoing calls the intelligent station can block the calls, redirect the outgoing call to another telephone number, disconnect a call if a time threshold is exceeded, and, if desired, notify the caller. On these outgoing calls and incoming calls, the station associated with the data line can accumulate usage statistics and statistics concerning calling and called numbers for each of the POTS stations. Advantageously, this arrangement allows for monitoring and control of the POTS lines at very low cost.  
         [0006]     In one embodiment, responsive to receipt of a call for the control station connected to the data line, the call can be redirected to one of the other stations. For such calls, the control station can request that the switch apply a distinctive ring. The call to the control station can also be automatically forwarded to another station if the call is not answered before the lapse of a predetermined interval. The control station&#39;s telephone number is, preferably, unpublished.  
         [0007]     In accordance with one preferred embodiment of Applicants&#39; invention, each of the POTS lines has a pointer to the data line and the data line has a linked list of the POTS lines which it controls. The data station keeps track of which POTS stations are connected to which telephone numbers both in order to maintain traffic statistics and in order to route incoming calls to an alternate station. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0008]      FIG. 1  is a block diagram illustrating the operation of Applicants&#39; invention;  
         [0009]      FIG. 2  is a flow diagram illustrating the process of handling an outgoing call from one of the POTS stations;  
         [0010]      FIG. 3  is a flow diagram illustrating the process of handling an incoming call to one of the POTS lines; and  
         [0011]      FIG. 4  is a flow diagram illustrating the process of handling an incoming call for the number of the data line. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0012]      FIG. 1  is a block diagram illustrating the operation of Applicants&#39; invention. A control station  1  comprises means for transmitting and receiving data messages  6  and a computer  5 , such as a personal computer (PC), for interpreting incoming messages and generating outgoing messages. One or more POTS can exist, limited only by the messaging bandwidth of the control station. In  FIG. 1 , two POTS stations ( 2  and  3 ) are shown. The control station and the POTS stations are connected to a switch  30 . The control station is connected to a control port  11  and POTS station  2  is connected to POTS port  12 . The switch includes a switching network  31  and a control processor system  32 . The control processor system controls processes  21  and  22  which are associated with control ports  11  and  12 , respectively. The switching network  31  is also connected to the public switched telephone network  33  which is connected to caller station  41  and called station  42 .  
         [0013]     The control station uses voice band analog signaling (frequency shift keying (FSK) or dual tone multifrequency (DTMF)) to communicate with switch  30 .  
         [0014]      FIG. 2  is a flow diagram illustrating the processing of an outgoing call from one of the POTS stations. The POTS station  2  sends dialing information to POTS port  12  (action block  201 ). POTS port  12  is associated with an enhanced POTS process  22 , which process sends a query message via control process  21  and control port  11  to control station  1  (action block  203 ). The query includes the identity of POTS station  2  and the dialed information. Control station  1  examines the contents of the query and generates a response message which is transmitted via control port  11  and control process  21  to POTS process  22  (action block  205 ). POTS process  22  examines the contents of the response message and performs one of a number of actions such as:  
         [0015]     1. completing the call as dialed from POTS port  12  to a called station  42 ;  
         [0016]     2. reroute the call to an alternative number;  
         [0017]     3. block further action on the call (action block  207 ).  
         [0018]     If the call is completed, then POTS process  22  notifies control station  1  of the completion of the call of the time that the called station answers and of the disconnect time of the call. This information is used by control station  1  to route calls only to an available POTS station and to accumulate statistics about call usage by POTS station  2  (action block  209 ). If POTS station  2  is allowed to complete the call but is not allowed to call the called station for more than a predetermined length of time, then the control station transmits messages to cause a tone to be applied to POTS station  2  some time, such as 15 seconds, before the limit is reached; if POTS station  2  has not yet disconnected when the time limit is reached, the control station sends another message to cause a disconnect when the maximum time is reached.  
         [0019]     All control messages are sent by switch under a guard timer. If there is no reply (e.g., control station down) then the switch proceeds to complete the call in a default manner by ringing the dialed number if idle.  
         [0020]     For reliability, the switch periodically sends a timed busy/idle status refresh of all POTS stations to the control station in the event the control station was offline for some time (e.g., computer malfunction). Control station could also request this by dialing a special reserved control DN on the switch.  
         [0021]     For calls with no caller identification or suppressed caller identification, special treatment such as an announcement can be provided.  
         [0022]     The call treatment can be made a function of the time of day and/or day of the week, so that, for example, calls outside business hours can be routed to voice mail.  
         [0023]     For calls to a busy POTS station which has call waiting service, a distinct call waiting tone can be provided under the control of the control station. Alternatively or in addition, all calls to the busy station except priority calls can be sent to busy tone.  
         [0024]     For calls for which no further control messages are received by the switch, the switch can itself provide default treatment such as routing to voice mail after a timeout in ringing.  
         [0025]      FIG. 3  is a flow diagram illustrating the processing of an incoming call to a POTS line. A call, including an incoming caller line identifier, is accepted in switch  30  (action block  301 ) and if the called station  2  is idle, a process  22  is created (action block  303 ). A query is sent (action block  305 ) from POTS process  22  to control process  21  to control port  11  and thence to control station  1 . The control station responds with a message which is sent via control port  11  and control process  21  to the POTS process  22  (action block  307 ). The message calls for one of a number of actions:  
         [0026]     1. attempt to complete as dialed by attempting to complete the call from POTS port  12  to POTS station  2 ;  
         [0027]     2. redirect the call to an alternative station identified by an alternative telephone number; or  
         [0028]     3. block the call and send busy tone or an announcement to the caller.  
         [0029]     The attempted call completion may be done with distinctive ringing applied from the serving switch in response to a message from the control station. If the attempted call is not completed within x seconds, then another query is sent to the control station  1 , which may provide a new call routing, may simply allow the call not to be completed, or route the call to a voice mail number stored in the switch.  
         [0030]      FIG. 4  is a flow diagram illustrating the processing of an incoming call to the control station. The call is received in the serving switch (action block  401 ) and switched through switching network  31  to control port  11  (action block  403 ) and a query is sent from control port  11  to control station  1  (action block  405 ). Based on the response to that query which is sent to the control port  11  (action block  407 ) and thence to the control process  21 , the call may be redirected to one of the POTS phones or may simply be completed via the data line to control station  1  (action block  409 ).  
         [0031]     The database  23  of the control processor system  32  contains the data which allows the control process  21  to identify the control port  12  and vice versa. The data for control port  11  includes a linked list of the identities of all the POTS ports associated with control port  11  and the data for POTS port  12  includes the identity of the control port  11 . This allows the control process  22  to respond to an incoming call by identifying the control port  11  and its associated control process  21 . If the control station wishes to reroute an incoming call to another POTS port, the identities of all the POTS ports are stored in a linked list in the database  23 .  
         [0032]     An arrangement wherein one control station serves a single POTS station is desirable when the control station is used primarily for computer access (e.g., ISP). If V.92 is used between the computer and ISP, the busy call can be given call waiting treatment; the control station can then send a brief set of call completion instructions. This can be useful at night to screen all but a selected group of priority business callers, while sending other callers to voice mail. It can also be useful for applying distinctive ringing signals, selected by the control station, to alert a user of the POTS station as to the type of caller.  
         [0033]     The control station  1  can update the database  23 , for example, to change routing among the POTS stations. For example, if POTS station  3  is not to receive any calls not dialed directly to the number of that POTS station, the database  23  can be modified by a message from control station  1  to eliminate alternate routing to that station. This would be done in response to an FSK or DTMF message sent from control station  1  to switch  30 .  
         [0034]     The control station  1  can keep call logs for all of the POTS stations and for itself. This allows system administrators to monitor the performance of agents staffing the individual POTS lines.  
         [0035]     When the control station sends an incoming call to a voice messaging system (not shown), it can send a request to the control processor system  32  to send a message to the appropriate POTS station to turn on a message waiting lamp.  
         [0036]     The above description is of one preferred embodiment of Applicants&#39; invention. Other embodiments will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the scope of the invention. The invention is limited only by the attached claims.