Abstract:
A system for synchronized call forwarding of an incoming call from any of a plurality of telephones includes receiving a synchronized call forwarding command at a first telephony device, sending the synchronized call forwarding command from the first telephony device to a second telephony device over a first network, receiving a telephone call at the second telephony device over a second network, and forwarding the incoming call in accordance with the synchronized call forwarding command received from the first telephony device over the second network.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates generally to forwarding telephone calls. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for call forwarding from a plurality of different telephones lines to a single call-forwarded telephone number. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Many office workers spend a sizable portion of their day outside their base office or away from their office telephone. For example, workers may be at other locations within their office building, outside their office building at remote sites, or in transit between sites. In all cases there is often a need to stay “connected” with the office telephone system, having the ability to receive calls that would normally go to the office phone. Call forwarding is one of the most prevalent and valuable features for telephony users in the office or home settings and in mobile settings. 
     Today, call forwarding is typically provided as a telephone system service by a local office/building PBX or by a telephony central office. The most basic operation is that a user can somehow signal this feature and cause calls going to their office phone, to be redirected to another phone. 
     In one typical system, as shown in FIG. 1, a user activates call forwarding by entering a sequence of button-presses on the keypad and/or button set of their office telephone  30 . This button press sequence usually includes call forwarding on/off codes and a “forward-to” number. As shown in FIG. 1, once call forwarding has been activated, inbound calls are forwarded from office telephone  30  to remote telephone  15  via a switching network  10  such as public switched telephone network (PSTN). Switching network  10  includes a switch  6  that performs the call forwarding functionality. Operationally, the user normally activates call forwarding at his office location just before leaving his office and similarly disables call forwarding upon returning to the office. 
     Another common call forwarding scenario exists where a user has more than one office location. As shown in FIG. 2, the user may have an office telephone  30  in a first location as well as another office telephone  31  in a location different from office telephone  30 . The user may desire to forward calls from both office telephones  30 ,  31  to a remote telephone  15  via switching network  10 . This requires the user to activate call forwarding at each location where the office telephones  30 ,  31  are located. Thus, a user having more than one office telephone, either manually sets up call forwarding at each office or forgoes the call forwarding feature for particular office locations. Moreover, if a user wants to forward calls from his home telephone, office telephone, and mobile telephone, to another telephone, the user would have to perform this time consuming task at each location. 
     Existing call forwarding systems also enable remote control of call forwarding as well. For example, one remotely controlled call forwarding system requires a user to dial a special service number that is associated with the call forwarding system for their office phone. Next, the user enters required PIN codes, forwarding on/off codes, forward-to numbers, etc., using the touch tone pad of the phone from which the user is calling. As a result, the user is able to use another telephone to remotely control the forwarding of calls originally destined to a first telephone that is remote from the “another telephone”. 
     In each of the above-mentioned systems, however, the user is required to enter a complex sequence of codes or button-presses. Many users find this difficult to perform, and consequently do not regularly forward their telephone calls. Moreover, when a user has multiple telephones, the user must perform the time consuming task of call forwarding for each telephone, whether locally or remotely, in order for each of his/her incoming calls to reach one desired telephone. 
     The present invention is therefore directed to the problem of developing a synchronized call forwarding system that can control forwarding for all multiple telephones in a simple, efficient and easily understood manner. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention solves this problem by allowing a user to call forward calls from a plurality of different telephones lines to one single telephone in one easy operation. 
     According to the present invention, a system for performing the method for synchronized call forwarding of an incoming call from any of a plurality of telephones includes receiving a synchronized call forwarding command at a first telephony device, sending the synchronized call forwarding command from the first telephony device to a second telephony device over a first network, receiving a telephone call at the second telephony device over a second network, and forwarding the incoming call in accordance with the synchronized call forwarding command received from the first telephony device over the second network. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     For a more complete understanding of the present invention, reference is now made to the following descriptions taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which: 
     FIG. 1 depicts a known call forwarding system. 
     FIG. 2 depicts a known call forwarding system. 
     FIG. 3 depicts one exemplary embodiment of the system according to the present invention; 
     FIG. 4 depicts an exemplary embodiment of the system according to the present invention; and 
     FIG. 5 depicts a flow chart of the present invention. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     The present invention provides synchronized or linked call forwarding services for a plurality of telephones based on available telephony and computing resources using an application program that allows a user to redirect inbound telephone calls from multiple telephones to a single telephone. As used herein, this application program will be referred to as the tel-controller application or “TCAPP”, which can be easily implemented on a computer, server, office switch, private branch exchange (PBX), etc. 
     Synchronized or linked call forwarding can be accomplished in a single user operation. Thus, the user does not have to perform (either locally or remotely) time consuming call forwarding procedures for each telephone, as explained above in order to have all of his/her inbound calls forwarded to one telephone. As used herein “telephone” is not limited strictly to the equipment which effects a call but is broad enough to include the telephone number or address of a communications device. 
     FIG. 3 depicts one exemplary embodiment of a system  300  of the present invention. A telephone  30  is coupled to a modem  32  which is connected to a telephone agent  34  and a switching network  10  to which a remote telephone  15  is coupled. Similarly, telephone  31  is coupled to modem  33  which is connected to a telephone agent  35  and a switching network  10 . The combination of the telephone agent and the telephone coupled by the modem may be referred to as a telephony device. In one exemplary embodiment an AT&amp;T ISDN telephone could be connected to the telephone agent. In addition, an integrated telephone/telephone agent could be used. 
     According to the present invention, telephones  30  and  31  have different telephone numbers and may be remotely located from each other. For example, telephone  30  may be located at a user&#39;s permanent residence and telephone  31  may located at the user&#39;s summer residence. 
     In one embodiment of the present invention, switching network  10  may be a Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) or any voice telephone network which is used in the transmission and reception of voice signals. 
     Telephone agents  34  and  35  may be any multi-purpose computer or any other data communication device. Telephone agents  34  and  35  include a processor and a memory for executing and storing commands. Telephone agents  34  and  35  are also coupled to a data network  37 . According to the present invention, data network  37  may be a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN) or the Internet. According to the present data network  37  may be any network which transmits data using packet switching. Data network  37  is connected to a telephony server  36  which is also connected to a switch  6  of switching network  10 . Switch  6  may provide various telephony services such as call-waiting, call forwarding, etc. 
     According to an embodiment of the present invention, telephony server  36  is defined as a computer having the capability of controlling, adding intelligence, storing, forwarding and manipulating data, voice, fax. e-mail, etc. calls flowing into and out of a computer telephony system. In one embodiment of the present invention, telephony server  36  forwards commands from various network components such as telephone agents  34  and  35 . 
     The synchronized call forwarding feature of the present invention operates as follows. System  300  of the present invention includes TCAPP. A TCAPP controller operates at either telephone agent  34  or  35  and is designated as the linked-call-forward (LCF) command transmitter. The other telephone agent  34  or  35  is then designated as the LCF command receiver. Although two telephony devices are shown in FIG. 3, multiple telephony devices may be incorporated in system  300  without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. 
     Telephony server  36  includes an application programming interface (API). As used herein, an API is defined as a set of functions and values used by one program to communicate with another program. More particularly, an API is a hook into software which is a set of standard software interrupts, calls, and data formats that application programs use to initiate contact with network services, mainframe communications programs, telephone equipment or program-to-program communications. Thus, telephony server  36  uses the API to interpret commands from telephone agents  34  and  35 . 
     A user at telephone  30 , activates call forwarding from his/her telephone to a remote telephone  15  by enter a command via telephone agent  34  such as: 
     forward_on &lt;forwarding number&gt;, wherein the forwarding number is the telephone number of remote telephone  15 . 
     Remote telephone  15  can be a wire-line telephone located at the user&#39;s office for example or a wireless cellular or mobile telephone. This command is sent to telephony server  36  and then sent to switch  6  of switching network  10 . Switch  6  receives the command and activates call forwarding for telephone  30 . Alternatively, the user can activate call forwarding as shown in FIG. 1 by calling a predetermined number sequence and activating call forwarding for telephone  30 . 
     Synchronized call forwarding is activated as follows. The user at telephone  30 , launches synchronized call forwarding by entering a command via telephone agent  34  such as: 
     forward_on &lt;forwarding number&gt;, &lt;message sender&#39;s ID&gt; wherein the forwarding number is the telephone number of remote telephone  15  and the message sender&#39;s ID is an ID of telephone agent  34 . 
     The command could include other information such as the telephone agents to receive the command, a timer to activate/deactivate synchronized call forwarding, etc. This command is sent to data network  37 . Data network  37  receives the command and sends the command to telephone agent  35 . Telephone agent  35  operates as a TCAPP receiver. Upon receiving the command, telephone agent  35  sends a request to telephony server  36  to have all inbound calls to telephone  31  redirected to the telephone indicated in the command from telephone agent  34 . Call forwarding may stay in effect for a predetermined time interval. The user, via the TCAPP command, sets the time interval. 
     According to the present invention, agent  34  can transmit commands to each telephone agent, such as telephone agent  35 , designated by the user. Moreover, the user can utilize other options available with the synchronized call forwarding system. For example, synchronized call forwarding can be automatically turned off or “timed out” after a user-specified time period, such as the end of the work day, end of the work week, etc. The system  300  could also include a default time, such as midnight, at which time the system would disable all call forwarding unless instructed to the contrary. Moreover, the system is capable of assigning different turn off periods for different telephones. 
     In addition, synchronized call forwarding could be set up such that only selected telephones would participate in the synchronized call forwarding procedure. For example, a user may desire synchronized call forwarding for all telephones except for his/her summer home telephone. 
     The present invention is a simple, non-complex useful means of controlling call forwarding such that call forwarding can be performed on a plurality of telephones in one operation by the user. 
     Variations of the synchronized call forwarding system are possible. In an exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 4, a PBX  400  is coupled between switching network  10  and telephone  30 . PBX  400  is also coupled to telephone server  36  which is connected to data network  37 . Similarly, a PBX  410  is coupled between switching network  10  and telephone  31 . PBX  401  is also coupled to telephone server  38  which is connected to data network  37 . Remote telephone  15  is coupled in the normal manner to switching network  10 . 
     A user can activate call forwarding at telephone  30  or  31  in a similar manner discussed above. In FIG. 4, PBX  400  and  410  operate in a similar manner as switch  6 . For example, PBX  400  and  401  communicate with telephone servers  36  and  38 , respectively, to receive commands from telephone agents  34  and  35 . These commands instruct the PBXs  400  and  401  to redirect inbound calls from telephones  30  or  31  to a remote telephone  15 . The operation of synchronized call forwarding operates in the same manner discussed above in that a TCAPP command is sent from a designated TCAPP controller to a designated TCAPP receiver activating call forwarding. 
     FIG. 5 depicts an exemplary embodiment of the method according to the present invention. The method starts at step  500 . The user activates call forwarding for a particular telephone at step  510 . This may be accomplished by using a telephone agent  34  or  35  of FIG.  4 . The telephone agent may include a user interface system including an input/output device such as a keyboard, or a mouse/display combination. The user may also include commands which limit the duration of call forwarding for the particular telephone or other commands. Once call forwarding has been activated, the process moves to the next step  520 . 
     In step  520 , the user activates synchronized call forwarding. The user enters a command which instructs telephone agents  34  or  35  of FIG. 4 acting as TCAPP receivers to redirect inbound calls to their associated telephones. Thus the TCAPP receivers communicate with a switch providing call-forwarding capabilities to redirect calls to the telephone indicated in the command of the TCAPP controller. 
     In addition, the synchronized call forwarding system can perform the following. 
     In step  530 , the TCAPP controller initiates in its command a timer function for one or all of the TCAPP receives. In step  540 , the TCAPP checks to see if the timer has expired, and if so, the process moves to step  550  and deactivates call forwarding, which is accomplished by transmitting a command from the telephone agents to the switch. Alternatively, the switch could receive an initial command which includes a shut off time. If the timer has not yet expired, the process simply waits and rechecks the timer. After deactivation, the process ends. 
     According to the present invention, a user does not necessarily have to activate call forwarding for his present telephone before launching synchronized call forwarding for the remainder of his telephones. For example, a user can simply launch synchronized call forwarding from his present telephone and have all inbound calls to the other telephones redirected to a remote telephone. Thus, all telephones except the present telephone would be synchronized. 
     Call forwarding is one of the most essential and useful telephone features. The present invention provides a service for making call forwarding easier to use and more approachable for a typical user by synchronizing call forwarding for a plurality of telephones such that the user does not have to activate call forwarding for each of his/her telephones. The method of the present invention has applications in local office telephone systems as well as home use. 
     Although the present invention has been described in detail, those skilled in the art should understand that they can make various changes, substitutions and alterations herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention in its broadest form.