Communication System

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2018092152-A1
Application number	US-201615347622-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Nov 9, 2016
Priority date	Sep 26, 2016
Publication date	Mar 29, 2018
Grant date	—

Abstract

A method of controlling a call between first and second user terminals, the method comprising: during the call, detecting a failure of a connection between the first user terminal and a packet-switched network; and in response, causing the call to be conducted at least part way via a PSTN network, via a connection between the first user terminal and the PSTN network. The call may be initiated by the first user terminal (such that the first user terminal is the caller and the second is the callee). The call may be initially conducted, prior to the failure, via a packet-switched connection between the first user terminal and a packet-switched network. The method may be implemented by a client application run on the first user terminal. Alternatively, the method may be implemented by a server.

First claim

1 . A near-end user terminal for conducting a call with a far-end user terminal, between a near-end user being a user of the near-end terminal and a far-end user being a user of the far-end terminal; the near-end user terminal comprising:
at least one first network interface operable to form a connection between the near-end user terminal and a packet switched network, for conducting the call over the packet switched network using a packet-based voice calling service; a second network interface operable to form a connection between the near-end user terminal and a PSTN network; memory comprising one or more memory units, the memory storing a communication client application; and processing apparatus comprising one or more processing units, the processing apparatus being arranged to run the communication client application; wherein the communication client application is configured so as when run on the processing apparatus to perform operations of: detecting a failure in the connection between the near-end terminal and the packet switched network, and in response conducting the call at least part way over the PSTN network by using the second interface to conduct the call via the connection between the near-end user terminal and the PSTN network.

2 . The near-end user terminal of claim 1 , wherein the communication client application is configured so as when run on the processing apparatus to perform operations of:
prior to said failure, initially establishing the call all the way over the packet-switched network using the packet-switched voice calling service, by using the first network interface to conduct the call via the connection between the near-end user terminal and the packet-switched network, and via a connection between the packet-switched network and the far-end user terminal; and then in response to the detection of said failure, during the call, switching the call to being conducted at least part way over the PSTN network, by said use of the second interface to conduct the call via the connection between the near-end user terminal and the PSTN network.

3 . The near-end user terminal of claim 1 , wherein the failure comprises the connection between the near-end user terminal and the packet-switched network being completely lost.

4 . The near-end user terminal of claim 1 , wherein the failure comprises the connection between the near-end user terminal and the packet-switched network falling below a threshold quality.

5 . The near-end user terminal of claim 1 , wherein the near-end user terminal is a mobile user terminal, said first network interface being a wireless interface to a wireless access point of the packet-switched network, said connection between the near-end user terminal and the packet-switched network being a wireless connection, said second network interface being a wireless interface to a cellular base station of the PSTN network, and said connection between the near-end user terminal and the PSTN network being a wireless connection.

6 . The near-end user terminal of claim 1 , wherein the communication client application is configured such that said conducting of the call via the PSTN network comprises:
conducting the call all the way over the PSTN network, by conducting the call via a connection between the PSTN network and the far-end user terminal using a PSTN number of the far-end user terminal.

7 . The near-end user terminal of claim 1 , wherein the communication client application is configured such that said conducting of the call via the PSTN network comprises:
conducting the call only part way over the PSTN network, by conducting the call via a gateway between the PSTN network and the packet-switched network using a gateway PSTN number mapped to a user ID identifying the far-end user within the packet-switched voice calling service, and via a connection between the packet-switched network and the far-end terminal via the packet-switched network using the packet-switched voice calling service and the user ID of the far-end user.

8 . The near-end user terminal of claim 6 , wherein the communication client application is configured to look up said PSTN number in a profile of the user of the far-end user terminal prior to the failure of said connection between the near-end user terminal and the packet-switched network, the profile being associated with the packet-switched voice calling service.

9 . The near-end user terminal of claim 7 , wherein the packet-switched voice calling service has multiple users including the near-end user and far-end users, the multiple users being assigned respective user IDs identifying them within the packet-switched voice calling service; and wherein the communication client application is configured so as when run on the processing apparatus to perform operations of:
accessing a phone number database which allocates a respective gateway PSTN number to each of only a subset of the user IDs, there being fewer gateway PSTN numbers available to be allocated to the user IDs than there are user IDs assigned to multiple users in the packet-switched voice calling service; and via said accessing, requesting that an available one of said gateway PSTN numbers is temporarily allocated to the user ID of the far-end user in order to enable said conducting of the call via the gateway.

10 . The near-end user terminal of claim 9 , wherein the communication client application is configured to perform said accessing of the number database via said connection between the near-end user terminal and the packet switched network, using the first network interface.

11 . The near-end user terminal of claim 10 , wherein the communication client application is configured so as, when run on the processing apparatus, to make said request for the allocation of the temporary gateway PSTN number prior to the failure of said connection between the near-end user terminal and the packet-switched network.

12 . The near-end user terminal of claim 11 , wherein the communication client application is configured so as when run on the processing apparatus to perform operations of:
prior to said failure, initially establishing the call all the way over the packet-switched network using the packet-switched voice calling service, by using the first network interface to conduct the call via the connection between the near-end user terminal and the packet-switched network, and via a connection between the packet-switched network and the far-end user terminal; and then in response to the detection of said failure, during the call, switching the call to being conducted at least part way over the PSTN network, by said use of the second interface to conduct the call via the connection between the near-end user terminal and the PSTN network; wherein the communication client application is configured to make said request upon the initiation of the call.

13 . The near-end user terminal of claim 11 , wherein:
the near-end user terminal is a mobile user terminal, said first network interface being a wireless interface to a wireless access point of the packet-switched network, said connection between the near-end user terminal and the packet-switched network being a wireless connection, said second network interface being a wireless interface to a cellular base station of the PSTN network, and said connection between the near-end user terminal and the PSTN network being a wireless connection; and the communication client application is configured so as when run on the processing apparatus to: use a localization system to track a current location of the near-end user terminal, access a location database to look-up location-dependent i

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Rodbro Christoffer A
• Sukhanov Sergey
• Erm Tanel
• Lindblom Jonas Nils Rune

Classifications

• H04M1/82

  Line monitoring circuits for call progress or status discrimination {(for detecting caller identity H04M1/573)} · CPC title

• H04M2203/152

  Temporary dial plan · CPC title

• H04W36/0016

  Hand-off preparation specially adapted for end-to-end data sessions · CPC title

• H04L41/0668

  by dynamic selection of recovery network elements, e.g. replacement by the most appropriate element after failure · CPC title

• H04W76/18 Primary

  Management of setup rejection or failure · CPC title