Avaya Technology LLC

Lucent Technologies Inc.

At&t Bell Laboratories

At&t Information Systems Inc.

At&t Company

Norman C. Chan

Norman C Chan

Bruce M Bales

Norman W Petty

Frederick Peter Block

Sharmistha Sarkar Das

Rickie E Meis

SuJeanne Foster

Leif K Pederson

Raymond B Bischoff

When it is determined that a sample queue exceeds a first predefined level, samples being received from a IP switched network are modified such that samples are removed within the voiced region of the samples by removing whole pitch periods of samples. If the sample queue is below a second predefined number, additional samples are placed into the queue by analyzing voiced samples from the IP switched network and generating additional pitch periods of samples.

System and method for minimizing overrun and underrun errors in packetized voice transmission

A switching center for use in a communication network includes a pool of echo cancellation units for use in providing echo cancellation services to users associated with the switching center on an 'as needed' basis. A communication connection being supported by the switching center is analyzed to determine whether intolerable reflections are being received from an associated trunk. If such reflections are detected, one of the echo cancellation units in the pool is assigned to the communication connection for use in reducing or eliminating the reflections. When the communication connection terminates, the echo cancellation unit is returned to the pool for subsequent use with another communication connection.

Method and apparatus for performing echo cancellation within a communication network

A call center includes a message playback unit for playing back a prerecorded greeting during an outgoing call while a call classifier unit within the call center processes an audible signal received from a remote party location. A call processing unit places a call to a remote party location via a communication network to attempt to elicit a desired response from the remote party. The call classifier then processes an audible signal received from the remote party location to determine whether or not the call was answered by a live party. The prerecorded greeting is then played while the call classifier is simultaneously processing the audible signal. If the call classifier determines that the call was answered by a live party, the call processing unit completes a talk path between the remote party location and a local agent at the call center who handles the remainder of the call. The call processing unit will normally wait until the greeting has ended to complete the talk path. If the call classifier determines that the call was not answered by a live party, the call processing unit will terminate the call.

Method and apparatus for generating automatic greetings in a call center

The subject invention is directed to a method and system for removing music or other unwanted noise from a conference call particularly when the music or other unwanted noise is not directly under the control of the telecommunication equipment the user is attached to and using. The method and system detects the unwanted sound, deactivates the sound source or disconnects from the line carrying the sound, monitors the disconnected line for voice energy, and reconnects the line when voice energy is detected. This capability provides the telecommunications equipment user with control over unwanted music sources being provided by equipment located either in the private or public networks.

Method and apparatus for suppressing music on hold

A call center includes a recording/playback unit for recording audible signals received (during an outgoing call) from a remote party location, while a call classifier unit within the call center processes the audible signals. A call processing unit places a call to a remote party location via a communication network to attempt to elicit a desired response from the remote party. The call classifier then processes audible signals received from the remote party location to determine whether or not the call was answered by a live party. The audible signals are recorded by the recording/playback unit and are placed in a queue while the call classifier processes the audible signals. If the call classifier determines that the call was answered by a live party, the call processing unit completes a path between the recording/playback unit and a local agent at the call center, and the recorded audible signals from the remote party are played back to the agent in an accelerated fashion. Meanwhile, the queue is being filled with incoming audible signals at normal speed. Once the queue of recorded audible signals has been emptied, the call processing unit establishes a realtime path between the remote party location and the local agent. If the call classifier determines that the call was not answered by a live party, the call processing unit will terminate the call.

Apparatus and method for storage and accelerated playback of voice samples in a call center

In an asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) disassembler unit that is receiving ATM cells from an optical interface and converting data from these cells onto a constant bit rate (CBR) call, only a nominal predefined build out is defined for each optical interface. If an ATM cell is not received within the proper amount of time for the CBR call from the optical interface, the build out is automatically adjusted so that the build out is equal to the amount of delay that was experienced in receiving the next ATM cell for the call. Only the build out for the individual call that actually experienced the delay of the ATM cell is redefined. The other calls being handled by the optical interface are not effected by this automatic adjustment of the build out interval for the individual call. In addition, when an ATM cell is delayed for a particular call, the information that is transmitted for the call is the last PCM sample of the present ATM cell for that call. This requires in the case of a wideband call that consists of a frame subdivided into a plurality of channels that the frame must be repeated upon an ATM cell being delayed. When the delayed ATM cell is received, all PCM samples for the call are transmitted so that no PCM samples are discarded.

Arrangement for performing automatic build out in a communications system that supports multiple constant-bit-rate connections

A silence-suppression scheme for a packet voice transmission system (FIG. 1) accurately regenerates the silence signals at the receiving end. The following discipline is implemented at the transmitting end (100): if speech is detected (200), transmit (204) a packet carrying the speech; if silence is detected (200) and the last-transmitted packet carried speech (202), transmit (204) a packet carrying the silence; if silence is detected (200) and the last-transmitted packet carried silence (202), transmit nothing. The following discipline is implemented at the receiving end (101): if a packet is received during a packet time interval (300), output (302) the contents of the packet; if a packet is not received during a packet time interval (300), output (306) again the contents of the last-received packet. Thus, while only one silence-carrying packet is transmitted, the receiver regenerates silence signals for the entire silence interval. Also, no special transmission protocol is required to implement this scheme.

Efficient transmission of voice silence intervals

Storing messages intended for a communication terminal in a service circuit associated with the local network of a switch node serving the communication terminal. A switch node may have one or more local networks and can use a service circuit of these networks to store the message. If the switch node does not have capacity to store the message, the switch node will request that another switch node store the message. When it is necessary to process and store a message for a communication terminal connected to a local network, the service circuit associated with the local network may be busy and unable to process the call or the service circuit may not have sufficient memory to store a message. In which case, the switch node will attempt to find a service circuit with the ability to process the message and store the message on another local network controlled by the switch node. If the switch node cannot find a single service circuit that has both processing capability and storage capability, the switch node will attempt to find a service circuit on one local network that has processing ability and a service circuit on another local network that has storage capacity. The message is then stored on a local switching network of the other switch node. If the switch node request another switch node store the message, the other switch node uses the same procedures described above for identifying a service circuit and storage capability.

Fully distributed message storage facilities in a distributed switching

The number of unprocessed packets accumulating at a point in a periodically sampled packet switching network carrying encoded voice information are counted and when the number of such unprocessed packets reaches a threshhold, or when the periodic sampling fails to detect the presence of a packet containing voice information a predetermined number of times, some of the packets, up to 20%, are discarded.

Reducing delay in packetized voice

In a distributed system, such as a PBX (FIG. 1), which uses a database for its operation, a master copy (22) of the database having a first format is stored at a central node (10) and cache copies (32) of database portions (24) but having a different format are stored at peripheral nodes (11-12). A change to the database is made to the master copy, is recorded in a change table (26) corresponding to the affected database portion, and is sent to affected peripheral nodes. At initialization, a boot copy (25) is made of each database portion by translating the database portion from the master database format to the cache copy format. Periodically thereafter, each boot copy is replaced with a new boot copy that reflects changes presently recorded in the corresponding change table. When the new boot copy is generated, the present change table contents are erased. When a peripheral node calls for a new cache copy (e.g., upon reboot), it is sent the corresponding boot copy and any changes presently recorded in the corresponding change table.

Reliable database administration arrangement

Administration of a communication system having a plurality of addressable communication ports is accomplished automatically, by the system itself. The system is initially provisioned only with unlinked terminal translations. Establishment of hardware translations and their linking to the terminal translations is accomplished by the system automatically, in response to initial calls from system users. Each one of these initial calls informs the system of the call-originating terminals's extension, and thereby specifies to the system the requisite information for linking the originating extension and terminal translation with the call's incoming port. Station moves are also accomplished automatically, through similar calls.

Automatic administration of a telecommunication system

The adjunct call processing arrangement of our invention eliminates the separation between hard-wired telephone switching system computer facilities and customer owned switchably connectable computer facilities. A general purpose communication interface is provided which connects the customer provided computer facilities to both the switching network and the hard-wired system processor of the telephone switching system via the standard telephone switching system port circuit. This general purpose communication interface enables a customer provided computer facility to provide additional call processing capability. In particular, the attendant services call processing subroutines and the directory assistance data base and software are provided on the computer facility. The telephone switching system routes all attendant-directed calls to a telephone station set associated with the computer and transmits call related data to the computer. The computer performs the necessary call processing and transmits a message back to the telephone switching system to indicate the switching system operation necessary to provide the requested service.

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Louisville, CO, United States of America

Norman C Chan