Sprint Communications Comapny L.p.

Steven Turner

Tracey Mark Bernath

Abdullah Murat Bog

Matthew Kung-Wei Jonathan Barrow

A communication device is coupled to an analog telephone and a packet network. The communication device detects an off-hook condition for the analog telephone and transfers a dial tone to the analog telephone, detects digit tones from the analog telephone that indicate a called number and responsively transfers a first message indicating the called number to the packet network, receives a second message from the packet network indicating that a called party associated with the called number is being alerted and responsively transfers a ring tone to the analog telephone, receives a third message from the packet network indicating that the called party has accepted the communication session and responsively stops the transfer of the ring tone to the analog telephone, exchanges analog voice signals with the analog telephone, exchanges voice packets with the packet network, and interworks between the analog voice signals and the voice packets.

Telecommunications device for use between an analog telephone and a packet network

The invention is a provider agent product and method that operates as a software interface between a telephony card and a session manager in an advanced communications network. The provider agent receives event messages from the telephony card indicating on-hook events, off-hook events, and digit events. The provider agent instructs the telephony card to provide dial tone, ring current, ringback, and busy signals to the telephones. The provider agent also exchanges messages with a session manager in the network. These messages include: invite messages, reply messages, join messages, and terminate messages. In response to the above processing, the provider agent instructs the telephony card to interwork telephony signals on a telephony channel with ATM signals on an ATM virtual channel. The provider agent is comprised of a plurality of software objects that are stored on a software storage medium and that include: a controller object, port objects, and event objects. The provider agent objects are executed by a multithreaded processing system and each object has a separate processing thread. The provider agent and the telephony card communicate through an application programming interface that is specified in an Interface Definition Language (IDL) of a Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA).

Telecommunications provider agent

A communication device is coupled to a packet network and includes two ports coupled to two analog telephones. The communication device receives a message from the packet network indicating a called number and processes the called number to select one of the ports and to transfer a ring signal through the selected port to ring the analog telephone. The communication device transfers a message to the packet network indicating that a called party is being alerted, detects an off-hook condition for the analog telephone and stops the transfer of the ring signal, transfers a message to the packet network indicating packet routing information for the communication session, exchanges analog voice signals with the analog telephone through the selected port, exchanges voice packets with the packet network using the packet routing information, and interworks between the analog voice signals and the voice packets.

Telecommunications device for use between analog telephones and a packet network

The invention is a provider agent product and method that operates as a software interface between an telephony hub and a session manager in an advanced communications network. The provider agent receives event messages from the telephony hub indicating on-hook events, off-hook events, and digit events. The provider agent instructs the telephony hub to provide dial tone, ring current, ringback, and busy signals to the telephones. The provider agent also exchanges messages with a session manager in the network. These messages include: invite messages, reply messages, join messages, confirm messages, and terminate messages. In response to the above processing, the provider agent instructs the telephony hub to interwork telephony signals on a telephony channel with ATM signals on an ATM virtual channel. The provider agent is comprised of a plurality of software objects that are stored on a software storage medium and that include: a controller object, port objects, and event objects. The provider agent objects are executed by a multithreaded processing system and each object has a separate processing thread. The provider agent and the telephony hub communicate through an application programming interface that is specified in an Interface Definition Language (IDL) of a Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA).

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Overland Park, KS, United States of America

Steven Turner