British Telecommunications Public Limited Company

British Telecommunications Corporation

Simon P A Ringland

Matthew D Walker

Francis J Scahill

Philip L Eardley

Benjamin Bappu

Simon Alexander Hovell

Mark Wright

A system for transmitting data via a core portion of a computer network to a mobile device is described. The network includes a plurality of access points wherein each access point includes a memory where data for onward transmission to the mobile device may be cached and is operable to communicate with the mobile device over a short-range wireless connection, when the mobile device is in range thereof, and with the core portion of the network over a backhaul connection on a substantially continuous basis. The exemplary system includes: a location collection server for receiving location data from the mobile device; an access point prediction engine for generating predictions of one or more of the access points which the mobile device is considered likely to come in range of in the future based on recent location data received at the location collection server; and a content delivery server for transmitting the data or a portion thereof to the one or more predicted access points via the backhaul connection for caching at the access points and for onward transmission to the mobile device in the event that the mobile device comes into range of the access point, or one or more of the access points where data is transmitted to more than one predicted access point.

Method of transmitting data to a mobile device

A method of call control in which a first communications network, detecting calls directed to a destination in the first network; redirects at least some of the calls to a destination in a second network (e.g. on no answer from the destination in the first network). The first communications network obtains from a client on a terminal associated with the destination in the second network a value for the time delay before a call to the destination in the second network is redirected in the second network on no answer to an alternative destination and sets a delay period to a value less than the value of the time delay obtained from the client. When one of the plurality of calls redirected to the second network is not answered in the second network within the delay period, the first communications network redirects the call to an alternative destination associated with the first network.

Call control

A method of establishing a communications session in a communications system is disclosed. The communications system comprises a user terminal, a mobile terminal associated with a contact a and session initiation unit. The method comprises: identifying the contact using the user terminal; transmitting contact data identifying the contact and user data associated with the user terminal from the user terminal to said session initiation unit; in dependence on the contact data, transmitting a request from the session initiation unit to the mobile terminal, the request comprising the user data and requesting that the mobile terminal establishes the communications session with the user terminal in dependence on the user data.

Establishing communications sessions

A method of call control in which a first communications network, detecting calls directed to a destination in the first network; redirects at least some of the calls to a destination in a second network (e.g. on no answer from the destination in the first network). The first network then operates in two phases. In a first phase, for a group of calls redirected to the second network, the time delay before the call is answered in the second network is recorded. When a number of time delays have been recorded, a delay period is set to a value less than the maximum value of the recorded time delays. In a second phase, for a second group of calls redirected to the second network subsequent to the calls of the first group, when a call of the second group is not answered in the second network within the delay period, the call is redirected to a message service associated with the first network.

A method of establishing a communications session in a communications system is disclosed. The communications system comprises a caller terminal (), a mobile terminal () associated with the caller terminal (), a callee terminal () associated with a callee and session initiation means (). It has become common yet frustrating for users to have to maintain contact lists on a multiplicity of communications devices (e.g. the caller terminal and the mobile terminal). The method comprises: (i) identifying the callee using the mobile telephone (); (ii) responsive to identification of said callee, transferring data identifying the callee from the mobile terminal () to the session initiation means (); and (iii) in dependence on the transferred data, operating the session initiation means () to establish a communications session between the caller terminal () and the callee terminal ().

A method and apparatus of recognizing a pattern comprising a sequence of sub-patterns includes a set of possible patterns being modelled by a network of sub-pattern models. One or more initial software model objects are instantiated first. As these models produce outputs, succeeding model objects are instantiated if they have not already been instantiated. However, the succeeding model objects are only instantiated if a triggering model output meets a predetermined criterion. This ensures that the processing required is maintained at a manageable level. If the models comprise finite state networks, pruning of internal states may also be performed. The criterion applied to this pruning is less harsh than that applied when determining whether to instantiate a succeeding model.

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Ipswich, United Kingdom

Simon P A Ringland