Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 10
Claim 1
Independent Claim
139 words
In a local telecommunications market served by a plurality of central office switches and a central database for maintaining routing data relating to non-traditional directory numbers which are collectively served by the plurality of central office switches, a method for automatically updating the routing data in the central database comprises: a first central office switch receiving a message to add a directory number from a provisioning system; the first central office switch sending a query message, including the directory number to be added and routing data, to the central database in response to receiving the message; determining whether the directory number to be added currently exists in the central database; and adding the directory number and routing data to update the central database responsive to a determination that the directory number does not currently exist in the central database.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
56 words
The method of claim 1 wherein the database contains a table for each of said plurality of switches and the step of adding the directory number and routing data into the central database comprises: creating an entry including the directory number and routing data in a central database table corresponding to the first central office switch.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
40 words
The method of claim 1 further comprises, in response to determining that the directory number currently exists in the database, the step of: the central database accessing a second central office switch to determine whether the directory number is active.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
33 words
The method of claim 3 further comprises the step of deleting an entry from a table corresponding to the second central office switch upon a determination that the directory number is not active.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
27 words
The method of claim 1 further comprises recording a transaction entry in the central database each time a central office switch accesses the database for update purposes.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
180 words
In a local telecommunications market served by at least two central offices, a provisioning system and a central database for storing routing information relating to directory numbers served by the central office switches, a method for automatically coordinating routing data updates in the central database comprises: a first central office switch receiving a message from the provisioning system over a first data link, wherein the message requires the addition of a directory number to a service base of the first central office switch; determining in a processor of the first central office switch that the message received from the provisioning system requires a central database query; the first central office sending a query message to the central database over a signaling network, wherein the message includes the directory number to be added to the service base of the first central office switch and routing data; and the first central office switch receiving a message over the signaling network from the central database in response to the query message wherein the message relates to updating routing data in the central database.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
31 words
The method of claim 6 further comprises: determining in a processor of the first central office switch the message received from the provisioning system does not require a central database query.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
49 words
The method of claim 6 wherein the step of the first central office switch receiving a message over the signaling network from the central database in response to the query message comprises: receiving a failure message from the central database when no update in the central database has occurred.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
40 words
The method of claim 6 further comprises: creating table entries including the directory number and routing data specific to the first central office switch in the central database; and sending an update complete message to the first central office switch.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
54 words
The method of claim 6 further comprises, in response to a determination that the directory number to be added matches a directory number which currently exists in the central database, the step of: the central database accessing a second central office switch over the signaling network to determine if the directory number is active.