Automatic telephone call distribution apparatus and method for electronic switching system

Claim 1

A switching system coupled to a plurality of telephone lines and a plurality of telephone sets, said switching system comprising: a plurality of trunk circuits, each coupled to one of said telephone lines, for detecting an incoming call from said telephone lines and for outputting a detected trunk directory number corresponding to said detected incoming call; a memory for storing a first table relating each of a plurality of trunk directory numbers to one of a plurality of group numbers, a second table relating each said group number to one or more directory numbers in a priority order, a third table relating each said directory number to one or more of said telephone sets, in-use status information for each of said telephone sets and each of said directory numbers, a detected number of incoming calls on hold for each said group, and a predetermined number of incoming calls on hold for each said group; means, coupled to said trunk circuits and said memory, for determining called telephone sets using said detected trunk directory number and said first, second and third tables; in-use status determining means for determining the in-use status of said called telephone sets as either busy or idle from said in-use status information; means for performing an automatic call distribution when one or more of said called telephone sets is idle; means for holding said detected incoming call when said called telephone sets are all busy; means, responsive to said in-use status determining means, for incrementing the detected number of incoming calls on hold for the group corresponding to said detected trunk directory number when said called telephone sets are all busy; comparing means for comparing said detected number of incoming calls on hold and said predetermined number of incoming calls on hold for said group corresponding to said detected trunk directory number; and transmitting means, responsive to said comparing means, for transmitting alarm information to a predetermined telephone set when said detected number of incoming calls on hold exceeds said predetermined number of calls on hold thereby providing notification of a holding state of said held incoming telephone calls.

Claim 5

The system according to claims 2, further comprising: means for detecting on-hook of one of said telephone sets and a directory number of said one telephone set; means, coupled to said memory, for automatically distributing an incoming call on hold to said one telephone set; means for erasing from said fourth table the detected trunk directory number corresponding to said distributed incoming call; and means for decrementing the detected number of incoming calls on hold corresponding to the group of said erased detected trunk directory number.

Claim 8

A method of operating a switching system coupled to a plurality of telephone lines, said method comprising the steps of: detecting an incoming call from said telephone lines and for outputting a detected trunk directory number corresponding to said detected incoming call; storing a first table relating each of a plurality of trunk directory numbers to one of a plurality of group numbers, a second table relating each said group number to one or more directory numbers in a priority order, a third table relating each said directory number to one or more of said telephone sets, in-use status information for each of said telephone sets and each of said directory numbers, a detected number of incoming calls on hold for each said group, and a predetermined number of incoming calls on hold for each said group; determining called telephone sets using said detected trunk directory number and said first, second and third tables; holding said detected incoming call when said called telephone sets are all busy; incrementing the detected number of incoming calls on hold for the group corresponding to said detected trunk directory number when said called telephone sets are all busy; comparing said detected number of incoming calls on hold and said predetermined number of incoming calls on hold for said group corresponding to said detected trunk directory number; and transmitting alarm information to a predetermined telephone set when said detected number of incoming calls on hold exceeds said predetermined number of calls on hold thereby providing notification of a holding state of said held incoming telephone calls.

Claim 9

A method of operating a switching system coupled to a plurality of telephone lines, said method comprising the steps of: detecting an incoming call from said telephone lines and for outputting a detected trunk directory number corresponding to said detected incoming call; storing a first table relating each of a plurality of trunk directory numbers to one of a plurality of group numbers, a second table relating each said group number to one or more directory numbers in a priority order, a third table relating each said directory number to one or more of said telephone sets, in-use status information for each of said telephone sets and each of said directory numbers, a detected number of incoming calls on hold for each said group, and a predetermined number of incoming calls on hold for each said group; determining called telephone sets using said detected trunk directory number and said first, second and third tables; holding said detected incoming call when said called telephone sets are all busy; incrementing the detected number of incoming calls on hold for the group corresponding to said detected trunk directory number when said called telephone sets are all busy; comparing said detected number of incoming calls on hold and said predetermined number of incoming calls on hold for said group corresponding to said detected trunk directory number; and transmitting alarm information to a predetermined telephone set when said detected number of incoming calls on hold exceeds said predetermined number of calls on hold thereby providing notification of a holding state of said held incoming telephone calls.