US6144670A
Expired / Lapsed
US
⏱️ 0.0 years remaining
Method and apparatus for establishing and facilitating a voice call connection from a client computer to a PSTN extension
Assignee: ITXC IP Holdings SARL
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Filing: 1998-08-06
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Granted: 2000-11-07
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Expires: 2018-08-06
Abstract
Abstract An apparatus for establishing a voice call to a PSTN extension for a networked client computer, and routing the voice call off of the network, is provided. In a first embodiment, the apparatus comprises a storage medium having stored therein a plurality of programming instructions coupled to an execution unit to execute the plurality of programming instructions to implement a set of communication services facilitating the establishment of the voice call to the PSTN extension. The set of communication services include services for receiving a request from the networked client computer requesting the voice call, determining the PSTN extension and controlling a computer telephony interface to route the voice call from the packet switched network to the PSTN extension.
Inventors
- 👤 Jeffrey B. Sponaugle
- 👤 Paul D. Crutcher
- 👤 Al J. Simon
- 👤 Jason T. Cassezza
- 👤 Mojtaba Mirashrafi
- 👤 Kenneth L. Keeler
- 👤 Ajit B. Pendse
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
US
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-11-05 11:28
CPC Classifications
H; H04; H04L; H04L12/00; H04L12/66; H04M; H04M7/00; H04M7/0024; H04M7/003; H04L65/00; H04L65/40; H04L65/401; H04L65/4061; H04L65/80; H04L9/00; H04L9/40; H04M7/006; H04M7/12; H04M7/1205; H04M7/1225; H04L65/10; H04L65/1016; H04L65/1066; H04L65/1101; H04M3/00; H04M3/42; H04M3/42314; H04M3/42323; H04M3/42348; H04M3/50; H04M3/51; H04M3/5183; H04M3/5191; H04M3/527
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 24
Claim 1
Independent Claim
183 words
A bridging apparatus comprising: a storage medium having stored therein a plurality of programming instructions; and an execution unit, coupled to the storage medium, to execute the plurality of programming instructions implementing a set of communication services on the bridging apparatus for establishing and facilitating a voice call for a client computer, including a service for receiving a notification from the client computer denoting the client computer's acceptance of an offer by a server to establish a voice communication session, said offer being electronically extended to said client computer by said server, and said notification being generated in response to a user of said client computer interacting with said electronically extended offer, the set of communication services further including a service for dynamically determining a destination PSTN extension associated with the offeror server in accordance with one or more attributes of the offeror server, and a service for controlling a computer telephony interface to establish a connection from the bridging apparatus to the dynamically determined destination PSTN extension for the client computer to route said voice call off of a packet switched network.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
183 words
A bridging apparatus comprising: a storage medium having stored therein a plurality of programming instructions; and an execution unit, coupled to the storage medium, to execute the plurality of programming instructions implementing a set of communication services on the bridging apparatus for establishing and facilitating a voice call for a client computer, including a service for receiving a notification from the client computer denoting the client computer's acceptance of an offer by a server to establish a voice communication session, said offer being electronically extended to said client computer by said server, and said notification being generated in response to a user of said client computer interacting with said electronically extended offer, the set of communication services further including a service for dynamically determining a destination PSTN extension associated with the offeror server in accordance with one or more attributes of the offeror server, and a service for controlling a computer telephony interface to establish a connection from the bridging apparatus to the dynamically determined destination PSTN extension for the client computer to route said voice call off of a packet switched network.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
27 words
The bridging apparatus of claim 1, wherein the computer telephony interface is located within the bridging apparatus and communicatively coupled with the execution unit via a bus.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
25 words
The bridging apparatus of claim 1, wherein the computer telephony interface is remotely located, communicatively coupled to the bridging apparatus via a packet switched network.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
20 words
The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the computer telephony interface is remotely located in an Integrated Remote Access Server (IRAS).
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
32 words
The bridging apparatus of claim 1, wherein the notification includes identification information of the offeror server, and the communication services dynamically determine the destination PSTN extension in accordance with the identification information.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
78 words
The bridging apparatus of claim 1, wherein the communication services further include services for providing the client computer with a network address of the bridging apparatus, and receiving a supplemental voice call request from the client computer, including a network address and one or more attributes of the client computer, and the communication services perform said dynamic determination of the destination PSTN extension further in accordance with one or more of the included attributes of the client computer.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
72 words
The bridging apparatus of claim 1, wherein the communication services further include services for soliciting inputs from one or more other bridging apparatuses on one or more operating characteristics associated with establishing the voice call to the destination PSTN extension, selecting either itself or one of the other bridging apparatuses to place the voice call to the dynamically determined destination PSTN extension, and identifying the selected bridging apparatus to the client computer.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
27 words
The bridging apparatus of claim 1, wherein the communication services further include services for causing a packet based telephony application to be launched on the client computer.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
43 words
The bridging apparatus of claim 1, wherein the communication services further include services for receiving a packet based phone call from the client computer, placing the voice call to the dynamically determined destination PSTN extension, and bridging the packet based and voice calls.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
29 words
The bridging apparatus of claim 9, wherein the bridging services include services for converting and delivering call signals between the client computer and the dynamically determined destination PSTN extension.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
24 words
The bridging apparatus of claim 1, wherein the communication services further include telephony services for cooperating with telephony equipment coupled to the bridging apparatus.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
120 words
In a bridging apparatus, a method for placing a voice call to a PSTN extension comprising: (a) receiving a notification from a client computer denoting the client computer's acceptance of an offer by a server to establish a voice communication session, the offer being electronically extended from the offeror server to the client computer, and the notification being generated in response to a user of the client computer interacting with the electronically extended offer; (b) dynamically determining a destination PSTN extension associated with the offeror server in accordance with one or more attributes of the offeror server; and (c) controlling a computer telephony interface to establish a connection to the dynamically determined destination PSTN extension to facilitate the voice call.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
120 words
In a bridging apparatus, a method for placing a voice call to a PSTN extension comprising: (a) receiving a notification from a client computer denoting the client computer's acceptance of an offer by a server to establish a voice communication session, the offer being electronically extended from the offeror server to the client computer, and the notification being generated in response to a user of the client computer interacting with the electronically extended offer; (b) dynamically determining a destination PSTN extension associated with the offeror server in accordance with one or more attributes of the offeror server; and (c) controlling a computer telephony interface to establish a connection to the dynamically determined destination PSTN extension to facilitate the voice call.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
28 words
The method of claim 12, wherein controlling the computer telephony interface (c) comprises issuing control commands to a remotely located computer telephony interface via a packet switched network.
Claim 16
Dependent Claim
27 words
The method of claim 12, wherein controlling the computer telephony interface (c) comprises issuing control commands to a co-located computer telephony interface accessible via an operating system.
Claim 17
Dependent Claim
40 words
The method of claim 12, wherein said receiving of a notification includes receiving identification information of the offeror server, and said determining of the destination PSTN extension is performed in accordance with the received identification information of the offeror server.
Claim 18
Dependent Claim
72 words
The method of claim 12, wherein the method further comprises providing the client computer with a network address of the bridging apparatus, and receiving a supplemental voice call request from the client computer, including a network address and one or more attributes of the client computer, and said dynamically determining of the destination PSTN extension is performed further in accordance with one or more of the included attributes of the client computer.
Claim 19
Dependent Claim
70 words
The method of claim 12, wherein the method further includes soliciting inputs from one or more other bridging apparatuses on one or more operating characteristics associated with establishing the voice call to the destination PSTN extension; selecting the bridging apparatus itself or one of the other bridging apparatuses to place the voice call to the dynamically determined destination PSTN extension; and identifying the selected bridging apparatus to the client computer.
Claim 20
Dependent Claim
39 words
The method of claim 12, wherein the method further includes receiving a packet based phone call from the client computer, placing the voice call to the dynamically determined destination PSTN extension, and bridging the packet based and voice calls.
Claim 21
Dependent Claim
161 words
A computer readable medium having stored thereon a plurality of instructions for programming a bridging apparatus to implement a set of communication services for establishing and facilitating a voice call for a client computer, wherein the communication services include services for receiving a notification from the client computer denoting the client computer's acceptance of an offer by a server to establish a voice communication session, the offer being electronically extended from said server to said client computer, and the notification being generated in response to a user of the client computer interacting with the electronically extended offer, the communication services further include a service for dynamically determining the destination PSTN extension associated with the offeror server in accordance with one or more attributes of the offeror server, and a service for controlling a computer telephony interface to establish a connection to the destination PSTN extension for the client computer operative to route said voice call off of a packet switched network.
Claim 22
Dependent Claim
161 words
A computer readable medium having stored thereon a plurality of instructions for programming a bridging apparatus to implement a set of communication services for establishing and facilitating a voice call for a client computer, wherein the communication services include services for receiving a notification from the client computer denoting the client computer's acceptance of an offer by a server to establish a voice communication session, the offer being electronically extended from said server to said client computer, and the notification being generated in response to a user of the client computer interacting with the electronically extended offer, the communication services further include a service for dynamically determining the destination PSTN extension associated with the offeror server in accordance with one or more attributes of the offeror server, and a service for controlling a computer telephony interface to establish a connection to the destination PSTN extension for the client computer operative to route said voice call off of a packet switched network.
Claim 23
Dependent Claim
32 words
The computer readable medium of claim 19, wherein the services for controlling a computer telephony interface includes services for controlling a remotely located computer telephony interface accessible via the packet switched network.
Claim 24
Dependent Claim
30 words
The computer readable medium of claim 19, wherein the services for controlling a computer telephony interface includes services for controlling a co-located computer telephony interface accessible via an operating system.
References Cited (Backward Citations)
USPTO Annuity & Maintenance Windows
| Annuity Stage | Window Opens | Payment Deadline | Surcharge Period Until | Estimated Fee | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.5 Years (Year 4) | 2003-11-07 | 2004-05-08 | 2004-11-07 | $2000.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |
| 7.5 Years (Year 8) | 2007-11-07 | 2008-05-08 | 2008-11-07 | $3760.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |
| 11.5 Years (Year 12) | 2011-11-07 | 2012-05-08 | 2012-11-07 | $7700.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |