Efficient flexible special service call processing

Claim 1

A method of identification of a termination for a telephone call directed to a dummy telephone station as one of a plurality of different terminations based on a zone of origination for the call as well as on a chronological factor comprising the steps of: (a) storing in a data base a record for said dummy telephone station including a hierarchy of at least three data arrays, each data array but one including a plurality of elements arranged in a predetermined order with data used for accessing a further array in the hierarchy, said one array of the hierarchy including termination information, a first of said data arrays further including a modification parameter, (b) receiving, at said data base, information about said call including identification of said dummy telephone station and region information identifying a region of origination of said call, (c) accessing said record for said dummy telephone station, (d) selecting an element from one of said arrays based on said region information and the predetermined order of the array, (e) accessing a further one of said arrays for said dummy telephone station based on said element selected in step d) and said dummy telephone station identification, f) selecting an element from the array accessed in step e) based on a current chronological factor and the predetermined order of the array, and g) using the element selected in step f) to identify the selected termination.

Claim 2

A method of identification of a termination for a telephone call directed to a dummy telephone station as one of a plurality of different terminations based on a zone of origination for the call as well as on a chronological factor comprising the steps of: (a) storing in a data base a record for said dummy telephone station including a hierarchy of at least three data arrays, each data array but one including a plurality of elements arranged in a predetermined order with data used for accessing a further array in the hierarchy, said one array of the hierarchy including termination information, a first of said data arrays further including a modification parameter, (b) receiving, at said data base, information about said call including identification of said dummy telephone station and region information identifying a region of origination of said call, (c) accessing said record for said dummy telephone station, (d) selecting an element from one of said arrays based on said region information and the predetermined order of the array, (e) accessing a further one of said arrays for said dummy telephone station based on said element selected in step d) and said dummy telephone station identification, f) selecting an element from the array accessed in step e) based on a current chronological factor and the predetermined order of the array, and g) using the element selected in step f) to identify the selected termination.

Claim 8

A method as recited in any of claims 1 to 6 wherein said record of step a) comprises, in addition to said hierarchy of arrays, a table of terminations accessed by a pointer, and wherein said array element selected in step f) comprises said pointer.

Claim 9

A method as recited in any of claims 1-6 which includes the further step of modifying said dummy telephone station identification by said modification parameter for use as a key in accessing said data base.

Claim 10

A method as recited in any of claims 1-6 which includes the further steps of: i) determining, at a predetermined point in a seven day period, whether a holiday is located either in the preceding or following seven day period, ii) in the event there is a holiday in either seven day period, determining the identification of a customer whose call processing is affected by the holiday, and iii) rewriting the record for the customer to change the contents of the customer record to account for the holiday.

Claim 12

A method of processing 800 calls to determine a termination for the call based on information respecting the dialed number, region of origin and chronological point of call placement comprising the steps of: a) storing a call processing record in a data base for each dialed 800 number, said call processing record comprising a hierarchy of at least three arrays, a1) a first array addressed by said dialed 800 number having a plurality of keys for different zones of origin as well as a modification factor, a2) a second array addressed by said dialed 800 number and one of the keys of said first array and having a plurality of keys for different chronological point of call placement and a3) a third array addressed by said dialed 800 number and keys selected from said first and second arrays and having termination information, b) said call processing record optionally including one or more modification subsets of records, each modification subset record including a second and third subset array, b1) said second subset array addressed by said dialed 800 number as modified by said modification factor and a key selected from said first array and having a plurality of keys for different chronological point of call placement, b2) said third subset array addressed by said dialed 800 number as modified by said modification factor and keys selected from said first array said second subset array and having termination information, c) responding to receipt of an 800 request message including said dialed 800 number and region of origin information by c1) accessing said customer record based on the dialed 800 number to access said first array c2) selecting a key based on the region of origin information, c3) determining whether the modification factor is non-zero, if the modification factor is zero accessing said second and third arrays to locate termination information, if the modification factor is non-zero, modifying the dialed 800 number by the modification factor and accessing the second and third subset arrays to locate termination information.

Claim 13

A method of processing 800 calls to determine a termination for the call based on information respecting the dialed number, region of origin and chronological point of call placement comprising the steps of: a) storing a call processing record in a data base for each dialed 800 number, said call processing record comprising a hierarchy of at least three arrays, a1) a first array addressed by said dialed 800 number having a plurality of keys for different zones of origin as well as a modification factor, a2) a second array addressed by said dialed 800 number and one of the keys of said first array and having a plurality of keys for different chronological point of call placement and a3) a third array addressed by said dialed 800 number and keys selected from said first and second arrays and having termination information, b) said call processing record optionally including one or more modification subsets of records, each modification subset record including a second and third subset array, b1) said second subset array addressed by said dialed 800 number as modified by said modification factor and a key selected from said first array and having a plurality of keys for different chronological point of call placement, b2) said third subset array addressed by said dialed 800 number as modified by said modification factor and keys selected from said first array said second subset array and having termination information, c) responding to receipt of an 800 request message including said dialed 800 number and region of origin information by c1) accessing said customer record based on the dialed 800 number to access said first array c2) selecting a key based on the region of origin information, c3) determining whether the modification factor is non-zero, if the modification factor is zero accessing said second and third arrays to locate termination information, if the modification factor is non-zero, modifying the dialed 800 number by the modification factor and accessing the second and third subset arrays to locate termination information.

Claim 19

A method as recited in any of claims 11-16 wherein said termination information of said third array has the form of one or more pointers, said call processing record further including a termination table and said step c3) includes selecting a pointer from said third array and selecting termination information from said termination table with said pointer.

Claim 20

A method as recited in any of claims 11-16 wherein said termination information of said third array and said third subset array has the form of one or more pointers, said call processing record further including a termination table, said step c3) includes selecting a pointer from said third array or said third subset array depending on whether said modification factor is zero or non-zero and selecting termination information from said termination table with said pointer.

Claim 21

A method as recited in any of claims 11-16 which includes the further steps of: i) determining, at a predetermined point in a seven day period, whether a holiday is located either in the preceding or following seven day period, ii) in the event there is a holiday in either seven day period, determining the identification of a customer whose call processing is affected by the holiday, and iii) rewriting the record for the customer to change the contents of the customer record to account for the holiday.

Claim 22

A method of processing 800 calls to select a termination for an 800 call based on a dialed 800 number, a region of origin of the call and a chronological point of call placement, the method comprising the steps of: a) storing in a data base a head entry and a plurality of arrays for each dialed 800 number, a1) said head entry including a modification factor and a plurality of keys for selection based on region of origin information, a2) said arrays including a first set of arrays addressed in part by a dialed 800 number and a second set of arrays addressed by a dialed 800 number as modified by a non-zero modification factor, a3) said first and second set of arrays having keys for selection based on chronological point of call placement, b) responding to call placement by accessing said head entry for determining whether or not said modification factor is zero, b1) if said modification factor is zero then 21 accessing said first set of arrays by said dialed 800 number, or b2) if said modification factor is non-zero then accessing said second set of arrays by said dialed 800 number as modified by the non-zero modification factor, c) selecting a termination based on information extracted from said head entry and one or more of said arrays.

Claim 23

A method of processing 800 calls to select a termination for an 800 call based on a dialed 800 number, a region of origin of the call and a chronological point of call placement, the method comprising the steps of: a) storing in a data base a head entry and a plurality of arrays for each dialed 800 number, a1) said head entry including a modification factor and a plurality of keys for selection based on region of origin information, a2) said arrays including a first set of arrays addressed in part by a dialed 800 number and a second set of arrays addressed by a dialed 800 number as modified by a non-zero modification factor, a3) said first and second set of arrays having keys for selection based on chronological point of call placement, b) responding to call placement by accessing said head entry for determining whether or not said modification factor is zero, b1) if said modification factor is zero then 21 accessing said first set of arrays by said dialed 800 number, or b2) if said modification factor is non-zero then accessing said second set of arrays by said dialed 800 number as modified by the non-zero modification factor, c) selecting a termination based on information extracted from said head entry and one or more of said arrays.