Bell Atlantic Network Services, Inc.

Verizon Services Corporation

Verizon Patent and Licensing Inc.

Michael G Pilkerton

Robert D Farris

Barry Paul Pershan

Raymond F Albers

Charles H Eppert, Iii

Daniel C Michaelis

Dale Lee Bartholomew

R Andrew Poole

John M Carman

David Harold Cave

Christine W Huff

Kamran Sistanizadeh

Thomas A Nolting

Jay C Lodsun

Walter Pomykacz

Albert F Valeo

George Korsanos

Christine Huff

Robert H Montgomery

Lin H Kerns

Andrew N Smith

Donald C Ryder

Public communication networks increasingly need to provide customers with a range of communication services, from baseband voice service, to computer data communications, to high speed digital data communications for multimedia and the like. Many such services would be blocked by existing telephone network line cards, which provide coding and decoding (CODEC) between analog and digital signals and process digital signals only at a relatively low, fixed bit rate. In accord with the invention, intelligent signal detection and control added to a line card selectively bypasses the CODEC and the associated connection to a time slot limited telephone exchange. The selective bypass connection provides a connection to an alternative network functionality capable of providing higher bandwidth digital services. In the preferred embodiment, the bypass provides a connection through an adaptive digital signal processor with a programmed controller. The digital signal processor provides coding and decoding functions, adapted to the particular communication service requested and the physical level signal protocol used over the customer's line. The digital signal processor also provides a two-way digital communication link to a relatively fast data switch, such as an edge device of an asynchronous transport mode (ATM) network. The data switch and associated data network provide a full range of digital communication services of various bandwidths or bit rates as may be requested by individual.

Selective bandwidth connectivity through network line cards

Telephone number translations and other data, such as class of service, that heretofore resided in end offices are relocated to one or more locations remote from the switches. Such locations may contain Integrated Service Control Points (ISCPs), or processing systems of like capacity, that are accessible through the SS7 network to the central office switches that serve calling subscribers. Translation tables that relate exchange codes to point codes, as well as triggers for routing to ported numbers, thus are not set individually in each central office. Information for each new service is loaded only into a single, or relatively few, centrally located databases rather than at each switch.

Remote telephone number routing inventory

In a public switched telephone network, interoffice call attempts to or from a line under surveillance generate a variety of query, response and release messages between the offices, as part of the normal procedures for setting up and tearing down the calls to and from the line. To insure that all calls under surveillance generate signaling messages, terminating, dialing and release triggers are set with respect to the target's line. As a result, the end office serving that line sends queries to a database on the signing network, receives response messages, and sends release report messages. A site processor compiles data from the signaling messages and forms a call detail record (CDR) for each call attempt relating to the target under surveillance. A central file server further processes the CDRs and supplies composite data regarding the target's calls through a data network connection to one or more law enforcement agencies.

Monitor network with advanced intelligent network (AIN) for electronic surveillance

A lawfully authorized electronic surveillance operation requires reporting of detailed call data for a variety of calls associated with the subject of the surveillance. For at least some specified calls to or from the subject, the invention provides profile data in a switching office serving the subject that causes the office to generate accounting messages for each call, essentially in the same manner as for billing, regardless of whether the calls are billable. Accounting records formed from the messages are uploaded to a server system, for processing and formatting as necessary for delivery to the law enforcement agency. The surveillance could entirely rely on these accounting records for the data reporting. In the preferred embodiments, however, the surveillance also involves monitoring of common channel signaling messages to accumulate call detail records for surveillance purposes, with respect to many calls associated with the subject. The preferred embodiment utilizes a special CLASS code set against the subject's profile in the serving end office. The CLASS code in the profile causes that office to produce the accounting messages for each of the subject's calls processed through the office that does not involve a monitored form of interoffice signaling.

Call detail reporting for lawful surveillance

In various forms of telephone network signaling, automatic number identification information (ANI) includes a field of two or more 'information' (II) digits, typically used to indicate a calling line attribute, such as hospital line, residential line, payphone, etc. A number of situations have arisen where it is desirable to use these digits to control network functions and it is necessary to accurately pass the digits through with all call related signaling. For example, accurate II digits can enable appropriate processing, billing and payments for toll-free calls from payphones. Existing switch software, however, does not always provide the correct II digits or pass the digits through unchanged. In accord with the invention, a call requiring flexible ANI functionality triggers access to a central database, preferably in a service control point (SCP) or a signaling transfer point (STP). The response message from the database provides the appropriate information digits for the ANI field, and the network switches pass the signaling with those digits for all further processing of the call.

Flexible ANI

Following the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), the FBI developed a standard set of communication services and interfaces. for lawfully authorized electronic surveillance, for both call data recording and content recording. Existing public switched telephone networks use a variety of switches. Not all of the switches in use are capable of performing the routines required by the CALEA standards. In accord with the invention, Advanced Intelligent Network (AIN) and/or Local Number Portability (LNP) functionality controls routing and billing of incoming and outgoing calls for the surveillance target. The routing is handled in such a manner that calls to and from the target are directed to a regional switching office which performs those functions for switches in the region which lack that capability. Through this arrangement call detail records (CDRs) regarding the target are accumulated and transferred to a law enforcement authority. If the surveillance of a particular target also requires monitoring of the content of the target's calls, the calls are routed through a switch or an Intelligent Peripheral (IP) having the requisite surveillance capability.

Advanced intelligent network (AIN) functionality for electronic surveillance

In a voice messaging system, voice mailboxes can be designated as private boxes from which boxes messages can be forwarded, with their source identities concealed, to destination mailboxes. Communication of messages may be between remote VMS systems as well as between mailboxes in the same VMS system. The private designation may be made selectively by a subscriber to the public switched telephone network on a global basis or on an individual basis for each message. The global designation may be toggled on or off at any time by a call to the system with appropriate input from the subscriber. Optionally, the private designation may be made for an individual message during the call in which the message is stored in the subscriber's mailbox. While information identifying the source of a communicated message is concealed from the recipient, a response message may be communicated from the recipient mailbox back to the source mailbox or a third party mailbox designated by the source subscriber.

Voice mail source address indentification blocking

Telephone network surveillance is provided for targeting subscriber terminals that receive service through an office lacking a switch with surveillance capability. A foreign exchange line is relied upon to connect the target's line to an office having that capability. Advanced Intelligent Network (AIN) functionality controls routing and billing of incoming and outgoing calls, so that the telephone network operations appear completely normal during the surveillance. In the office normally serving the target's line, a terminating attempt trigger causes that office to obtain instructions from a service control point (SCP), to route the call to the foreign exchange line terminated in the office with the surveillance capability. The instructions also prevent billing of the redirection through the surveillance office to either the called party or the calling party. An off-hook delay trigger set against the foreign exchange line in the surveillance office causes that office to obtain instructions from the SCP, to facilitate billing for the call as if initiated from the target's normal telephone line connection.

Electronic surveillance in a public switched telephone network

Following the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), the FBI developed a standard set of communication services and interfaces for lawfully authorized electronic surveillance. For telephone communications, the current industry implementation of compliance with this standard involves deploying certain interface equipment in end office switches of the telephone network. However, the requisite surveillance functionality often resides in a certain limited number of offices. Where the target under surveillance receives service out of an office lacking the surveillance capability, the network routes the call through an office having the requisite capability. For this purpose, the invention relies on intelligent network processing, particularly variations on such processing normally used to implement local number portability. The control node supplying the routing information for local number portability also supplies routing information for surveillance related calls, in order to route calls to and from the target location through an office having the surveillance interfaces in a manner that is entirely hidden from the target and anyone communicating with the target.

Growing community of inventors

Fairfax Station, VA, United States of America

Michael G Pilkerton