Dytel Corporation

Syntellect Acquisition Corp.

Rockwell International Corporation

Aspect Communications Corporation

Herbert B Krakau

Sanford J Morganstein

Bakulesh A Mehta

Mark D Klecka

Edward F Tuck

Neil F Milsted

Lawrence G Gierut

Robert Carleton

Thomas M Dawson

Bimal B De

Ron H Bindl

Eddie Tan-Atichat

Kirit Naik

Disclosed is an intercept system for integrating the personalized services of switchboard attendants associated with on-premises PBX switching systems, with the capabilities of the intercept system for allowing calling parties the opportunity to complete their own calls to the on-premise switching systems when the telephone extension numbers of the called parties are known to the calling parties. Depending on the mode of system operation selected, the intercept system either presents all incoming calls directly to the switchboard attendants, or intercepts all incoming calls and presents the caller the opportunity to complete the call, or a combination in which incoming calls are first offered to the switchboard attendants for assistance and then after a time wherein attendant assistance is not gained, the call is intercepted and the caller is given an opportunity to complete the call. When a call is intercepted a bidirectional communication path is established between the caller and the intercept system wherein a digital announcement circuit transmits an instructional message to the caller soliciting the dialing of the desired on-premise switching system telephone extension number, and a DTMF receiver collects the dialed extension number digits. The digits are then outpulsed to the on-premises switching system and the call to the desired party is completed without the intervention of a switchboard attendant.

Computer controlled call processor

Disclosed is an intercept system for integrating the personalized services of switchboard attendants associated with on-premises PBX switching systems, with the capabilities of the intercept system for allowing calling parties the opportunity to complete their own calls to the on-premises switching systems when the telephone extension numbers of the called parties are known to the calling parties. Depending on the mode of system operation selected, the intercept system either presents all incoming calls directly to the switchboard attendants, or intercepts all incoming calls and presents the caller the opportunity to complete the call, or a combination in which incoming calls are first offered to the switchboard attendants for assistance and then after a time wherein attendant assistance is not gained, the call is intercepted and the caller is given an opportunity to complete the call. When a call is intercepted a bidirectional communication path is established between the caller and the intercept system wherein a digital announcement circuit transmits an instructional message to the caller soliciting the dialing of the desired on-premises switching system telephone extension number, and a DTMF receiver collects the dialed extension number digits. The digits are then outpulsed to the on-premises switching system and the call to the desired party is completed without the intervention of a switchboard attendant.

Automated attendant call processor

Disclosed is an intercept system for integrating the personalized services of switchboard attendants associated with on-premise PBX switching systems, with the capabilities of the intercept system for allowing calling parties the opportunity to complete their own calls to the on-premise switching systems when the telephone extension numbers of the called parties are known to the calling parties. Depending on the mode of system operation selected, the intercept system either presents all incoming calls directly to the switchboard attendants, or intercepts all incoming calls and presents the caller the opportunity to complete the call, or a combination in which incoming calls are first offered to the switchboard attendants for assistance and then after a time wherein attendant assistance is not gained, the call is intercepted and the caller is given an opportunity to complete the call. When a call is intercepted a bidirectional communication path is established between the caller and the intercept system wherein a digital announcement circuit transmits an instructional message to the caller soliciting the dialing of the desired on-premise switching system telephone extension number, and a DTMF receiver collects the dialed extension number digits. The digits are then outpulsed to the on-premises switching system and the call to the desired party is completed without the intervention of a switchboard attendant.

Call completion apparatus is disclosed for enhancing the integration of voice store and forward facilities with calling parties attempting to complete telephone calls to a telephone switching system. The call completion equipment intercepts incoming calls, provides voice prompts to the calling parties, and collects telephone extension digit information. On a determination of the unavailability of the called party, the call completion equipment prompts the calling party concerning an optional connection to voice store and forward equipment. In response to the input of a digit code by the calling party, the call completion equipment consults personality tables, translation tables and call flow control tables to provide all the appropriate information which is outpulsed through the telephone switching system to the voice store and forward facility. The operations of the call completion equipment in establishing communications with the voice store and forward facility are transparent to the calling party.

Integration of voice store and forward facility

Call processing apparatus for queuing calling parties waiting to be connected to a service position, and for calculating queue position data or wait time data and transmitting the queue data to the calling parties. The queued calling parties can also reach alternate destinations by inputting digit information for routing queued calling parties to such destinations.

Interactive call processor to facilitate completion of queued calls

Disclosed is an intercept system for integrating the personalized services of switchboard attendants associated with on-premises PBX switching systems with the capabilities of the intercept system for allowing calling parties the opportunity to complete their own calls to the on-premises switching systems when the telephone extension numbers of the called parties are known to the calling parties. Depending on the mode of system operation selected, the intercept system either presents all incoming calls directly to the switchbard attendants, or intercepts all incoming calls and presents the caller the opportunity to complete the call, or a combination in which incoming calls are first offered to the switchboard attendants for assistance and then after a time wherein attendant assistance is not gained, the call is intercepted and the caller is given an opportunity to complete the call. When a call is intercepted a bidirectional communication path is established between the caller and the intercept system, wherein a digital announcement circuit transmits an instructional message to the caller soliciting the dialing of the desired on-premises switching system telephone extension number, and a DTMF receiver collects the dialed extension number digits. The digits are then outpulsed to the on-premises switching system and the call to the desired party is completed without the intervention of a switchboard attendant.

Call processor for facilitating call completions

Apparatus (24) for connecting an outside caller (10) to an extension (14) of a local exchange (16) having a direct inward system access (DISA) feature includes a processor (90) and a memory (93) coupled to the processor (90) for storing at least one predetermined security code. A dialing information receiver (58) is controlled by the processor (90) to receive dialing information input from the outside caller (10). A second memory (94) is coupled to the processor (90) and the receiver (58) for storing the dialing information. A transmitter (58) is coupled to the processor (90) and the local exchanger (16) for transmitting second dialing information related to the dialing information to the local exchange (16). The processor may make a correlation between the dialing information and the second dialing information, or the dialing information may be passed through unchanged as the second dialing information. The apparatus preferably employs a standard trunk connection (34) between the apparatus (24) and the local exchange (16).

Automated attendant with direct inward system access

Apparatus for recognizing a telephone call supervision signal by comparing its frequency and cadence to the frequency and cadence of a previously learned call supervision signal is provided as part of call completion equipment (10). Call progress tone detector (50) receives a call supervision signal and responds by outputting frequency parametric signals which indicate whether predetermined standard frequencies are present in the received signal. Microprocessor (74) determines the cadence of the received call supervision signal and outputs a corresonding cadence parametric signal. If it is beneficial to learn the received call supervision signal, the frequency and cadence parameters are stored in memory (78). Recognition circuits can then recognize a subsequent telephone call supervision signal by comparing its frequency and cadence parameters to the frequency and cadence parameters stored in memory (78) for at least one learned signal.

Busy/no-answer call completion equipment

A call processor (32) for intercepting incoming calls to a key telephone system (10) and returning a message to a calling party. A digital message storage unit (48) stores messages associating called parties with respective pseudo-telephone numbers so the calling party can input information identifying a desired called party. A CPU (50) of the call processor (32) references a look-up table (52) with the pseudo-telephone number input by the calling party to select and transmit a message via an intercom line (36) to the key telephone system (10). The message carried by the intercom line (36) broadcasts a message relating to the identity of the called party as well as the line to utilize.

Automated access facilities for use with key telephone systems

A call processor (32) for intercepting incoming calls to a key telephone system (10) and returning a message to a calling party. A digital message storage unit (48) stores messages associating called parties with respective pseudo-telephone numbers so the calling party can input information identifying a desired called party. A CPU (50) of the call processor (32) references a look-up table (52) with hte pseudo-telephone number input by the calling party to select and transmit a message via an intercom line (36) to the key telephone system (10). The message carried by the intercom line (36) broadcasts a message relating to the identity of the called party as well as the line to utilize.

Call completion equipment (10) is disclosed for use with a switching system (14) for assisting callers to complete telephone calls thereto. If a primary destination telephone set (16) is busy or does not answer, a message is transmitted from a message storage unit (54) to the calling party. The message relates to the selection by the caller of secondary destinations including a switchboard attendent 18, an alternate destination telephone set, a camp-on option or voice messaging facilities. A processor complex (72) processes the digits dialed by the caller in response to the message, using various look-up tables (85-87), and transfers corresponding information to the switching system (14). The switching system (14) completes the call to the secondary destination according to the information. The invention (10) provides automatic camp-on features (87) with regard to predefined telephone sets of the switching system (14). Self-adaptive tone learn apparatus (50) and programs (88) are provided to learn the particular signature characteristics of call progress tones transmitted by the telephone switching system (14).

Disclosed is an intercept system for integrating the personalized services of switchboard attendants associated with on-premises PBX switching systems with the capabilities of the intercept system for allowing calling parties the opportunity to complete their own calls to the on-premises switching systems when the telephone extension numbers of the called parties are known to the calling parties. Depending on the mode of system operation selected, the intercept system either presents all incoming calls directly to the switchboard attendants, or intercepts all incoming calls and presents the caller the opportunity to complete the call, or a combination in which incoming calls are first offered to the switchboard attendants for assistance and then after a time wherein attendant assistance is not gained, the call is intercepted and the caller is given an opportunity to complete the call. When a call is intercepted a bidirectional communication path is established between the caller and the intercept system, wherein a digital announcement circuit transmits an instructional message to the caller soliciting the dialing of the desired on-premises switching system telephone extension number, and a DTMF receiver collects the dialed extension number digits. The digits are then outpulsed to the on-premises switching system and the call to the desired party is completed without the intervention of a switchboard attendant.

PBX Intercept and caller interactive attendant bypass system

An automatic fault recovery system for a multiple processor control complex of a telecommunications switching system is disclosed. The fault recovery system has a hierarchical structure which deals with the occurrence of soft faults and localizes insofar as possible the effect of errors, with the goal of minimizing disruption of calls through the switching system. Included in the steps taken by the recovery system are rewriting memory locations in active memory units from standby memory units, switching between active and standby copies of memory units, bus units and central processor units, and instituting progressively more pervasive initializations of all the processors in the control complex. The recovery system includes an arrangement employing a memory block parity check for fast initialization. A time shared error detection and correction activity assures that standby copies of memory units are in condition to become active when required.

Growing community of inventors

Elmhurst, IL, United States of America

Herbert B Krakau