Database-driven automatic message accounting system and method

Claim 2

An automated system for collecting and compiling call/event records, comprising: a plurality of call data blocks each having data items related to at least one telephone call; at least one table indexable by a predetermined data item in the call data block for determining a call/event record structure in response to a call type and call condition associated with the telephone call, the at least one table using the predetermined data item to identify the call type, the at least one table using the call type to identify the call condition or a program to determine the call condition; and a process accessing the call data blocks for retrieving the data items, the process creating the call/event records with the retrieved data items according to the at least one table.

Claim 3

The automated system, as set forth in claim 1, wherein the at least one table comprises at least one structure selection table having data structure information corresponding to a call type and call condition associated with the telephone call.

Claim 4

The automated system, as set forth in claim 2, wherein said at least one structure selection table includes: a call type selection table having a list of call types; and a call condition selection table having a list of call conditions and program locations for determining call conditions.

Claim 5

The automated system, as set forth in claim 1, wherein the at least one table comprises a structure definition table having definitions of each field in the call data blocks and corresponding call/event records for the call type and call condition of the telephone call.

Claim 6

The automated system, as set forth in claim 3, wherein said call type selection table includes an index into said call condition selection table for each call type in order to identify the call condition or a program location to determine the call condition.

Claim 7

The automated system, as set forth in claim 1, wherein said call data blocks each includes a data item usable as an index into said at least one table.

Claim 8

The automated system, as set forth in claim 3, wherein said call data blocks each includes a data item usable as an index into said call type selection table.

Claim 9

The automated system, as set forth in claim 1, further comprising a field formatting table defining the positions of fields in the call data blocks and call/event records and further defining the attributes of data in the fields.

Claim 10

An automated system for collecting and compiling call/event records, comprising: a plurality of call data blocks each having data items related to at least one telephone call; at least one table indexable by a data item in the call data block for determining a call/event record structure in response to a call type and call condition associated with the telephone call; a process accessing the call data blocks for retrieving the data items, and creating the call/event records with the retrieved data items according to the at least one table; a field formatting table defining the positions of fields in the call data blocks and call/event records and further defining the attributes of data in the fields, wherein said at least one table comprises pointers to a first field formatting table having a definition of a source data field and pointers to a second field formatting table having a definition of a destination data field.

Claim 11

An automated system for collecting and compiling call/event records, comprising: a plurality of call data blocks each having data items related to at least one telephone call; at least one table indexable by a data item in the call data block for determining a call/event record structure in response to a call type and call condition associated with the telephone call; a process accessing the call data blocks for retrieving the data items, and creating the call/event records with the retrieved data items according to the at least one table; a field formatting table defining the positions of fields in the call data blocks and call/event records and further defining the attributes of data in the fields, wherein said at least one table comprises pointers to a first field formatting table having a definition of a source data field and pointers to a second field formatting table having a definition of a destination data field.

Claim 12

The automated system, as set forth in claim 9, wherein the definition of source and destination data fields comprises a position of the data field in the call data block and call/event record, respectively.

Claim 13

The automated system, as set forth in claim 9, wherein the definition of source and destination data fields comprises field size and data format.

Claim 14

An automated system for collecting and processing call data blocks and generating call/event records, comprising: a plurality of call data blocks each having data items related to at least one telephone call; at least one structure selection table indexable by a predetermined data item having data structure information corresponding to a call type and call condition associated with the telephone call, the at least one structure selection table using the predetermined data item to identify the call type, the at least one structure selection table using the call type to identify the call condition or a program to determine the call condition; a structure definition table having definitions of each field in the call data blocks and corresponding call/event records for the call type and call condition of the telephone call; and a process accessing the call data blocks for retrieving the data items, and creating the call records with the retrieved data items according to the at least one structure selection table and structure definition table.

Claim 15

An automated system for collecting and processing call data blocks and generating call/event records, comprising: a plurality of call data blocks each having data items related to at least one telephone call; at least one structure selection table indexable by a predetermined data item having data structure information corresponding to a call type and call condition associated with the telephone call, the at least one structure selection table using the predetermined data item to identify the call type, the at least one structure selection table using the call type to identify the call condition or a program to determine the call condition; a structure definition table having definitions of each field in the call data blocks and corresponding call/event records for the call type and call condition of the telephone call; and a process accessing the call data blocks for retrieving the data items, and creating the call records with the retrieved data items according to the at least one structure selection table and structure definition table.

Claim 16

The automated system, as set forth in claim 12, wherein said at least one structure selection table includes: a call type selection table having a list of call types; and a call condition selection table having a list of call conditions and program locations for determining call conditions.

Claim 17

The automated system, as set forth in claim 13, wherein said call type selection table includes an index into said call condition selection table for each call type in order to identify the call condition or a program location to determine the call condition.

Claim 18

The automated system, as set forth in claim 12, wherein said call data blocks each includes a data item usable as an index into said at least one structure selection table.

Claim 19

The automated system, as set forth in claim 14, wherein said call data blocks each includes a data item usable as an index into said call type selection table.

Claim 20

The automated system, as set forth in claim 12, further comprising a field formatting table defining the positions of fields in the call data blocks and call/event records and further defining the attributes of data in the fields.

Claim 21

An automated system for collecting and processing call data blocks and generating call/event records, comprising: a plurality of call data blocks related to at least one telephone call; at least one structure selection table having data structure information corresponding to a call type and call condition associated with the telephone call; a structure definition table having definitions of each field in the call data blocks and corresponding call/event records for the call type and call condition of the telephone call; and a process accessing the call data blocks for retrieving the data items, and creating the call records with the retrieved data items according to the at least one structure selection table and structure definition table; a field formatting table defining the positions of fields in the call data blocks and call/event records and further defining the attributes of data in the fields, wherein said structure definition table comprises pointers to a first field formatting table having a definition of a source data field and pointers to a second field formatting table having a definition of a destination data field.

Claim 22

An automated system for collecting and processing call data blocks and generating call/event records, comprising: a plurality of call data blocks related to at least one telephone call; at least one structure selection table having data structure information corresponding to a call type and call condition associated with the telephone call; a structure definition table having definitions of each field in the call data blocks and corresponding call/event records for the call type and call condition of the telephone call; and a process accessing the call data blocks for retrieving the data items, and creating the call records with the retrieved data items according to the at least one structure selection table and structure definition table; a field formatting table defining the positions of fields in the call data blocks and call/event records and further defining the attributes of data in the fields, wherein said structure definition table comprises pointers to a first field formatting table having a definition of a source data field and pointers to a second field formatting table having a definition of a destination data field.

Claim 23

The automated system, as set forth in claim 18, wherein the definition of source and destination data fields comprises a position of the data field in the call data block and call/event record, respectively.

Claim 24

The automated system, as set forth in claim 18, wherein the definition of source and destination data fields comprises field size and data format.

Claim 25

An automated method for processing call data blocks, comprising the steps of: collecting a plurality of call data blocks associated with a plurality of telephone calls; using a predetermined data item in each call data block to access a structure selection table according to a call type and call condition of the telephone call for determining data structures of the call data block and a call/event record, the predetermined data item identifying the call type, the call type identifying the call condition or a program to determine the call condition; defining a plurality of fields of the call data block and the call/event record according to a structure definition table; retrieving the data from the call data block according to the structure definition table; and inserting the data into the call/event record according to the structure definition table.

Claim 26

An automated method for processing call data blocks, comprising the steps of: collecting a plurality of call data blocks associated with a plurality of telephone calls; using a predetermined data item in each call data block to access a structure selection table according to a call type and call condition of the telephone call for determining data structures of the call data block and a call/event record, the predetermined data item identifying the call type, the call type identifying the call condition or a program to determine the call condition; defining a plurality of fields of the call data block and the call/event record according to a structure definition table; retrieving the data from the call data block according to the structure definition table; and inserting the data into the call/event record according to the structure definition table.

Claim 27

The method, as set forth in claim 21, further comprising the step of defining a position and attribute of each of the plurality of fields in the call data block and the call/event record according to field formatting tables.

Claim 28

The method, as set forth in claim 22, further comprising the steps of: using a call record identifier in the call data block to access a call type selection table having indices into a call condition selection table; accessing the call condition selection table having indices into the structure definition table corresponding to a plurality of predefined call types and call conditions; and accessing the structure definition table and determining the fields of the call data block and call/event record.

Claim 29

An automated method for processing call data blocks, comprising the steps of: collecting a plurality of call data blocks associated with a plurality of telephone calls; using a predetermined data item in each call data block to access a structure selection table according to a call type and call condition of the telephone call for determining data structures of the call data block and a call/event record; defining a plurality of fields of the call data block and the call/event record according to a structure definition table; retrieving the data from the call data block according to the structure definition table; inserting the data into the call/event record according to the structure definition table; defining a position and attribute of each of the plurality of fields in the call data block and the call/event record according to field formatting tables; using a call record identifier in the call data block to access a call type selection table having indices into a call condition selection table; accessing the call condition selection table having indices into the structure definition table corresponding to a plurality of predefined call types and call conditions; accessing the structure definition table and determining the fields of the call data block and call/event record, wherein the step of accessing the structure definition table includes: for each data item, determining the source and destination data fields of each data item in the call data block and call/event record, respectively, by accessing respective field definition tables; and determining the positions of the source and destination data fields in the call data block and call/event record.

Claim 30

An automated method for processing call data blocks, comprising the steps of: collecting a plurality of call data blocks associated with a plurality of telephone calls; using a predetermined data item in each call data block to access a structure selection table according to a call type and call condition of the telephone call for determining data structures of the call data block and a call/event record; defining a plurality of fields of the call data block and the call/event record according to a structure definition table; retrieving the data from the call data block according to the structure definition table; inserting the data into the call/event record according to the structure definition table; defining a position and attribute of each of the plurality of fields in the call data block and the call/event record according to field formatting tables; using a call record identifier in the call data block to access a call type selection table having indices into a call condition selection table; accessing the call condition selection table having indices into the structure definition table corresponding to a plurality of predefined call types and call conditions; accessing the structure definition table and determining the fields of the call data block and call/event record, wherein the step of accessing the structure definition table includes: for each data item, determining the source and destination data fields of each data item in the call data block and call/event record, respectively, by accessing respective field definition tables; and determining the positions of the source and destination data fields in the call data block and call/event record.

Claim 31

The method, as set forth in claim 24, further comprising the step of determining the data format of the source and destination data fields in the call data block and call/event record.

Claim 32

The method, as set forth in claim 24, further comprising the step of converting the data format of the source data field in the call data block prior to insertion into the call/event record.

Claim 33

An automated method for processing call data blocks, comprising the steps of: collecting a plurality of call data blocks associated with a plurality of telephone calls; using a predetermined data item in each call data block to access a structure selection table according to a call type and call condition of the telephone call for determining data structures of the call data block and a call/event record; defining a plurality of fields of the call data block and the call/event record according to a structure definition table; retrieving the data from the call data block according to the structure definition table; inserting the data into the call/event record according to the structure definition table; and changing the structure of the call/event record by changing the at least one structure definition table.

Claim 34

An automated method for processing call data blocks, comprising the steps of: collecting a plurality of call data blocks associated with a plurality of telephone calls; using a predetermined data item in each call data block to access a structure selection table according to a call type and call condition of the telephone call for determining data structures of the call data block and a call/event record; defining a plurality of fields of the call data block and the call/event record according to a structure definition table; retrieving the data from the call data block according to the structure definition table; inserting the data into the call/event record according to the structure definition table; and changing the structure of the call/event record by changing the at least one structure definition table.

Claim 35

The method, as set forth in claim 22, further comprising the step of changing the format of the call/event record fields by changing the field formatting table.

Claim 36

An automated method for processing call data blocks, comprising the steps of: collecting a plurality of call data blocks associated with a plurality of telephone calls; using a predetermined data item in each call data block to access a structure selection table according to a call type and call condition of the telephone call for determining data structures of the call data block and a call/event record; defining a plurality of fields of the call data block and the call/event record according to a structure definition table; retrieving the data from the call data block according to the structure definition table; inserting the data into the call/event record according to the structure definition table; and switching between n sets of structure selection table and structure definition table for dynamically switching the structure and format of the call/event records.

Claim 37

An automated method for processing call data blocks, comprising the steps of: collecting a plurality of call data blocks associated with a plurality of telephone calls; using a predetermined data item in each call data block to access a structure selection table according to a call type and call condition of the telephone call for determining data structures of the call data block and a call/event record; defining a plurality of fields of the call data block and the call/event record according to a structure definition table; retrieving the data from the call data block according to the structure definition table; inserting the data into the call/event record according to the structure definition table; and switching between n sets of structure selection table and structure definition table for dynamically switching the structure and format of the call/event records.