At&t Bell Laboratories

Lucent Technologies Inc.

American Telephone & Telegraph Co., At&t Bell Laboratories

William C Sand

Mark S Binkerd

Rickey Joseph Spiece

Shao-Kuang Hu

Scott Douglas Olmstead

Alvin Barshefsky

Kirk K Pegues

Shun-Chi Wu

Chi Ying Yu

A system and methods are provided for collecting, analyzing, and reporting data supplied on the report data stream of an electronic switching system or other generator of a report or log data stream or file. Local data storage facilities are provided to receive and store report data stream information for one or more switches. A centralized data storage and analysis facility receives the data collected by the local facilities. A parser parses the collected report data to select and reformat report items of interest according to predefined selection triggers. A post processing facility includes pattern identification and pattern classification components. The pattern identification component reads the parsed, selected report items and extracts a pattern comprising the selection triggers and function call addresses associated with each event. The pattern classification component determines whether the identified pattern for each event is old or newly encountered. If new, a new pattern identification is assigned and the pattern information is stored. If old, the pattern identification is retrieved from storage and associated with the event. The system provides a facility for users with subject matter expertise to associate a group of related patterns as a &ldquo;problem.&rdquo; After post-processing, pattern and report information is imported into a database. A user interface, which may include a world-wide-web server and browser, is provided to display the analyzed information to the user. The system determines switch performance indices, including an Operational Risk index, which measures the risk of being unable to provide services from a switch.

System and method for analyzing and displaying telecommunications switch report output

An arrangement is disclosed for charging a credit card number for a call extended from a calling customer line to a called destination via a toll telecommunications network. Calls including supervisory and traffic information from a plurality of calling lines are multiplexed for extending the calls over a time division multiplex communications channel through the call charging arrangement to the network. The arrangement includes a time slot separator for separating the supervisory information from the call information and a switching network for switching the remaining call information to a traffic information receiver. A central processor in the arrangement receives the credit card number from the traffic information receiver and forwards the number to a data base for call charging authorization. When authorized, the processor utilizes the supervisory information to make a record charging the credit card number for the call. In addition, a transmitter in the arrangement forwards the supervisory information to the toll network. The switching network also switches the call information which is combined with the supervisory information to the toll network. Periodically, the call records are sent to a billing system for processing.

Call charging arrangement

Disclosed is a channel unit for directly interconnecting a toll office multiplex carrier channel line and a terminal unit line such as that of a private branch exchange (PBX) or a telephone station set, thereby eliminating the normal local end office interconnection. In particular, the channel unit interfaces the different signaling protocols of the two lines and generates call progress controls signals such as dial tone and audible ringing which are normally generated by the local end office. The channel unit comprises a converter for each line for converting the electrical interface signals representative of the busy and idle conditions of the line to logic level signals also representative of the busy and idle conditions of the line. A predetermined series of these logic level signals form a control signal that indicates the state in one signaling protocol of a call on the line. Since the control signal indicative of the state in one signaling protocol of the call on one line is typically not useable by the other line, a microprocessor included in the unit generates a second control signal to advance the state in another signaling protocol of the call on the other line to an equivalent call state. An additional converter then converts the logic level signals of this second control signal to the electrical interface signals of the other line to advance the state in the other signaling protocol of the call to the equivalent call state. The unit further comprises a receiver and transmitter for exchanging dial pulse and dual tone multifrequency address signals between the lines. Also, included are circuits for applying call progress control signals such as dial-tone, audible ringing, and power ringing to the lines.

Signaling protocol channel unit

Disclosed is a channel unit for directly interconnecting a toll office multiplex line and a terminal unit line such as that of a private branch exchange (PBX) or a telephone station set, thereby eliminating the normal local end office interconnection. In particular, the channel unit interfaces the different signaling protocols of the two lines and generates call progress controls signals such as dial tone and audible ringing which are normally generated by the local end office. The channel unit comprises a converter for each line for converting the electrical interface signals representative of the busy and idle conditions of the line to logic levels also representative of the busy and idle conditions of the line. A predetermined series of these logic levels form a control signal that indicates the state of a call on the line. Since the control signal indicative of the state of the call on one line is typically not useable by the other line, a microprocessor included in the unit generates a second control signal to advance the state of the call on the other line to an equivalent call state. An additional converter then converts the logic levels of this second control signal to the electrical interface signals of the other line to advance the state of the call to the equivalent call state. The unit further comprises a receiver and transmitter for exchanging dial pulse and dual tone multifrequency address signals between the lines. Also, included are circuits for applying call progress control signals such as dial-tone, audible ringing, and power ringing to the lines.

Signaling protocol interface channel unit

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St. Charles, IL, United States of America

William C Sand