Method and system for managing internal and external calls for a group of communication clients sharing a common customer identifier

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10171889-B2
Application number	US-99374806-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 21, 2006
Priority date	Dec 21, 2006
Publication date	Jan 1, 2019
Grant date	Jan 1, 2019

Abstract

A method and network element for implementing a virtual PBX feature for a customer associated with a plurality of endpoints. The method comprises receiving information regarding a call. Based on the information regarding the call, it is determined if the call is an external inbound call or an internal call that identifies a particular one of the endpoints. Responsive to determining that the call is an external inbound call, the call is caused to be routed to the plurality of endpoints associated with the customer, while responsive to determining that the call is an internal call that identifies a particular one of the endpoints, the call is caused to be routed to the particular one of the endpoints. This allows members of a small business or household to share a common external subscriber line, while also allowing the members to reach one another with ease.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method of implementing a virtual private branch exchange (PBX) feature for a customer associated with a plurality of VoIP communication clients each capable of placing and receiving VoIP telephone calls, comprising:
receiving at a control entity providing the virtual PBX feature information regarding a call comprising a source address/sub-address pair and a destination identifier;
at the control entity, consulting a database to determine using the information regarding the call if the call is an external inbound call directed to the customer or an internal call from one of the VoIP communication clients associated with the customer that identifies a different particular one of the VoIP communication clients, the database comprising a plurality of records each record storing a customer identifier and at least one address/sub-address pairs of at least one communication client of the associated customer, at least one of the stored records further storing a plurality of sub-address each associated with a respective alias of a communication device;
responsive to determining that the call is an external inbound call directed to the customer, causing the call to be routed to each of the plurality of VoIP communication clients associated with the customer without being passed through a PBX or key system;
responsive to determining that the call is an internal call by matching the source address/sub-address pair of the received call information to a stored record in the database and an alias in the received call information to an alias in the record, causing the call to be routed to the particular one of the VoIP communication clients associated with the alias without being passed through a PBX or key system.

2. The method defined in claim 1 , wherein causing the call to be routed to the plurality of VoIP communication clients associated with the customer comprises causing the call to be routed to each of the plurality of VoIP communication clients associated with the customer.

3. The method defined in claim 2 , wherein causing the call to be routed to the plurality of VoIP communication clients associated with the customer comprises causing the call to be routed to each of the plurality of VoIP communication clients associated with the customer contemporaneously.

4. The method defined in claim 2 , wherein causing the call to be routed to the plurality of VoIP communication clients associated with the customer comprises causing the call to be routed to each of the plurality of VoIP communication clients associated with the customer in sequence.

5. The method defined in claim 1 , wherein the information regarding the call comprises a session request.

6. The method defined in claim 5 , wherein causing the call to be routed to the different particular one of the VoIP communication clients comprises sending the session request to the particular one of the VoIP communication clients.

7. The method defined in claim 6 , wherein the session request is a session initiation protocol (SIP) INVITE message.

8. The method defined in claim 6 , wherein sending the session request to the different particular one of the VoIP communication clients comprises formulating a packet to convey said session request to a gateway, said packet being given a destination that is an address associated with the gateway.

9. The method defined in claim 8 , the information regarding the call comprising a source address and an indication of a called party, wherein sending the session request to the different particular one of the VoIP communication clients further comprises consulting a database on a basis of the source address and the indication of the called party to obtain the address associated with the gateway.

10. The method defined in claim 6 , wherein sending the session request to the different particular one of the VoIP communication clients comprises formulating a packet to convey said session request to a gateway, said packet being given a destination that is indicative of an address associated with the gateway and is indicative of a sub-address associated with the different particular one of the VoIP communication clients.

11. The method defined in claim 10 , the information regarding the call comprising a source address/sub-address pair and an indication of a called party, wherein sending the session request to the different particular one of the VoIP communication clients further comprises consulting a database on a basis of the source address/sub-address pair and the indication of the called party to obtain the address associated with the gateway and the sub-address associated with the particular one of the VoIP communication clients.

12. The method defined in claim 6 , wherein sending the session request to the different particular one of the VoIP communication clients comprises formulating a packet, the packet being given a respective destination that is an address associated with the different particular one of the VoIP communication clients.

13. The method defined in claim 12 , the information regarding the call comprising an indication of a called party, wherein sending the session request to the different particular one of the VoIP communication clients further comprises consulting a database on a basis of the indication of the called party to obtain the address associated with the different particular one of the VoIP communication clients.

14. The method defined in claim 6 , wherein sending the session request to the different particular one of VoIP communication clients comprises formulating a packet, the packet being given a respective destination that is an address/sub-address pair associated with the different particular one of the VoIP communication clients.

15. The method defined in claim 14 , the information regarding the call comprising an indication of a called party, wherein sending the session request to the different particular one of the VoIP communication clients further comprises consulting a database on a basis of the indication of the called party to obtain the address/sub-address pair associated with the different particular one of the VoIP communication clients.

16. The method defined in claim 5 , wherein causing the call to be routed to the plurality of VoIP communication clients comprises sending the session request to each of said VoIP communication clients.

17. The method defined in claim 16 , further comprising effecting a call forking operation to replicate the session request for each of said VoIP communication clients.

18. The method defined in claim 17 , wherein the session request is a session initiation protocol (SIP) INVITE message.

19. The method defined in claim 17 , wherein sending the session request to each of said VoIP communication clients comprises formulating a respective packet to convey said session request to a gateway, said respective packet being given a destination that is an address associated with the gateway.

20. The method defined in claim 19 , the information regarding the call comprising a source address and an indication of a called party, wherein sending the session request to each of said VoIP communication clients further comprises consulting a database on a basis of the source address and the indication of the called party to obtain the address associated with the gateway.

21. The method defined in claim 17 , wherein sending the session request to each of said VoIP communication clients comprises formulating a respective packet to convey said session

Assignees

• Clark David William
• Arsenault Jonathan Allan
• Dawson Jeffrey William
• Wolf Eric John
• Bce Inc

Inventors

• Clark David William
• Arsenault Jonathan Allan
• Dawson Jeffrey William
• Wolf Eric John

Classifications

• H04M3/46

  Arrangements for calling a number of substations in a predetermined sequence until an answer is obtained · CPC title

• H04Q2213/13034

  A/D conversion, code compression/expansion · CPC title

• H04Q2213/13222

  PBX circuits in public exchange, centrex · CPC title

• H04Q2213/1322

  PBX · CPC title

• H04Q2213/13389

  LAN, internet · CPC title