Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PRIVATE SWITCHED BASED
COMMUNICATION TO A NETWORK SITE DURING NETWORK SITE
COMMUNICATION THROUGH A COMMUNICATION NETWORK
Back>:round Of The Invention
This invention generally relates to telecommunication systems and methods, and
more particularly, to systems and methods that communicate via a computer
network
such as the Internet.
As the number of users on large computer networks such as the Internet
continues to grow, electronic commerce is becoming increasingly important to
the
to business world. At present, numerous businesses advertise, perform
electronic
transactions and offer electronic payment methods on the Internet. This number
is
increasing rapidly because the Internet allows these businesses to operate
internationally
and have direct access to a extensive group of consumers. However, electronic
transactions and electronic payment methods require that secure information
such as
account numbers, personal identification codes, and credit card information be
sent over
the Internet where the information can be intercepted by unwanted entities.
Computer networks such as the Internet are unsecure networks because they
consist of a multitude of computers which are not controlled in any unified
wav The
networking technology employed by the Internet is very smart. Every time, a
new
?o computer is connected to the Internet, the Internet adopts that connection
as its ~w n and
begins to route Internet traffic over that connection and through that new
computer
Additionally, the Internet tragic follows multiple paths through multiple
computers to
assure proper reception at a destination site. As more computers are connected
to the
Internet, the network grows exponentially.
z, Unfortunately, every computer connected to the Internet can potentially
intercept
and read the Internet traffic that is routed through that computer. Thus, any
secure
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information that is sent over the Internet may be potentially intercepted by a
large
number of computers connected to the Internet. Encryption has been used to
help
overcome this problem, however, encryption only makes it harder to access
information
and it does not prevent illegal access. Additionally there is no universal
encryption
standard and there are numerous legal and political hurdles which prevent
encryption
from being widely accepted as a secure way of doing business over a worldwide
Internet.
At present, many consumers are unwilling to transmit sensitive information
over
the Internet because of the fear that their credit card data is moving across
a hop by hop
shared public network enabling others the opportunity to capture the data from
within
to the network or backend servers holding the vital data. Additionally, the
available
encryption programs are difficult to operate and the laws governing these
programs
make them unattractive. Thus, in order to allow electronic commerce to grow,
there is a
need to implement a secure connection which will allow consumers to transmit
and
receive sensitive information with Internet enabled businesses.
Additionally, there is a need to allow consumers to communicate with Internet
enabled businesses in a two way voice method while still connect to the
Internet .-~t
present, Internet telephones are available which allow telephonic
communication via the
Internet. However, these Internet telephones have poor sound quality because
their
performance is limited by the performance of the Internet connection. Thus,
there ns an
2u additional need to allow consumers to communicate with businesses in a two
wav v nice
method that will maintain connection to the Internet.
Summary Of The Invention
The above problems are solved, and a number of technical advances are a~hrev
ed
in the art, by implementation of a ,vstem and method that allows a worldwide
Internet
?s connection to be combined with ~~ne or more point to point telephonic
connection:
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In accordance with the invention, a method for transmitting communication
signals from a elecommunication switch, via a communication network, to a
network
server having a network site for communication with a computer device coupled
with the
telecommunication system is described. The method comprises the steps of
connecting
the telecommunication switch to the network site via the communication network
and
establishing a point to point path between the telecommunication switch and
the network
site.
Brief Description Of The Drawings
The foregoing advantageous features of the invention will be described in
detail
to and other advantage features will be made apparent upon reading the
following detailed
description that is given with reference to the several figures of the
drawings, in which.
Fig. 1 shows a functional block diagram for the communication system of the
invention;
Fig. 2 shows a more detailed block diagram for the communication system shuw n
in Fig. 2; and
Fig. 3 shows a signal flow diagram showing the process performed by the
:VSIeIII
of Fig. 1.
Detailed Description
Fig. 1 shows a functional block diagram for the communication system 1 tiWl-he
2o communication system 100 is shown having a computer device 105, telephonic
aw ooh
1 10, communication network I I ~, network server 120, and a network site
1'_'~ fhe
computer device 105 is connected, via connection (communication link) 130, to
the
telephonic switch 1 10. The telephonic switch 1 l0 is connected to the
communicatn~n
network 1 15 via connection 13s The communication network 1 l5 is also
connected
via connection 140, to the network ;ite 125. The network site 125 is located
un the
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network server 120 and is also connected to the telephonic switch 1 10 via
connection
145.
The telephonic switch 1 10 is preferably any switch that connects a central
office
of a telephone or cellular service provider to a computer device 105. Examples
of a
telephonic switch which may selectively be employed are the SESS Digital
Switch and
SESS Digital Cellular Switch that are both manufactured by Lucent
Technolovies, Inc.
The communication network 1 15 is preferably any computer network such as a
local
area network, non-local area network, intranet network or the worldwide
Internet
Transmission of communication signals between the switch l 10 and the network
site I
to at server 120 is often performed via a shared publically accessible
communication
network 1 15 such as the Internet.
The computer device 105 is any device that allows communication with the
communication network. The computer device 105 may be preferably a computer.
web
television set, or any other device that allows bi-directional communication
to the
communication network l 15 such as the Internet. The network server 120 is
preferably
a computer controlled unit connected to the communication network 1 15, via
connection
140, such as a web server on the Internet. The network site 125 is any
computer :ite
that contains information which can be accessed via the communication network
1 I
Examples are web sites (also known as web pages) and file transfer protocol (
F-hf ~ ~o~:
2t> on the lnternet.
The communication link I 30 is any communication link that allows the computer
device 105 to communicate with the telephonic switch 1 10. The communication
Irnk
130 preferably includes conventional modem connections, transmission digital
mh:~r~h~r
line (~CDSL including ADSL, HDSL, ~'DSL, etc.) connections, cable modem
connections, wireless modem connections, microwave and millimeter wave
connem«n:
and optical connections.
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In accordance with the present invention, the telephonic switch 1 10, upon
being
signaled from the computer device 105, makes a signal connection with the
network site
(web site) 125 via the communication network 1 I5. In response to receipt of a
request
from the computer device 105 to make a direct connection to the network site
125, the
system bypasses the intermediate communication network 1 15, and a point to
point path
across signaling connection 145 is established between the telephonic switch
and the
network site 125 at the network server 120. The point to point connection path
is
preferably established in response to a user indicating a desire to make the
connection
such as by actuating an icon at the computer device l05 prompting such action
to the
to made. The point to point path across signaling connection 145 is
established through
one or more private switched based connections between the telephonic switch l
l0 and
the network site 125. The connection between the switch 110 and the network
site 1 ? ~
across transmission media 135, 140 via the shared publically accessible
communication
network 115 is maintained upon the establishment of the private switched based
connection between the switch 1 10 and the network site 125. It should be
further
understood that the establishment of the point to point path across private
media I-4~
may include one or more private switch based connections between the
telephonic switch
110 and the network site 125. The private switch based connections preferably
avoid
appearing on shared publically accessible communication networks such as
network I 1 s
2u The point to point path between the switch 1 10 and the server 120, as wen
in
Fig. l, is preferably a standard telephonic communication path such as a
private cirmo
switched dialed calling path. Preferably the private circuit is on a public or
private
network. An example of this is upon the telephonic switch 1 10 being signaled
v is the
communication network 1 1 s or the computer device 105 to place a dialed m«dm
~,rll ro
the network server 120 to transmit data between computer device 105, the
telephunm
switch, and the network server l'_'0
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Referring now to Fig. 2 the communication system 100 is shown in greater
detail.
Within the computer device 105 is a computer device interface circuit 150. The
computer device interface circuit 150 communicates with the telephonic switch
l 10 and
is preferably a modem.
The telephonic switch 1 10 has a customer premises equipment (CPE) interface
155, a communication network interface 160 and a telephonic network interface
165.
The CPE interface 155 connects and communicates with the computer interface
circuit
1 SO via communication link 130 The communication network interface 160
connects
and communicates, via connection 135, with a communication network server 170
to located within the communication network 1 15. The telephonic network
interface 165
connects and communicates, via connection 145, with the network site
telephonic
interface 175 located within the network site 125.
As seen in Fig. 2, the communication network 1 15 includes the communication
network server 170 and a network 180. The network 180 may be preferably a
local area
network, non-local area network, intranet, or the Internet. As an example, if
the
network 180 is the Internet, the communication network server 170 is
preferably an
Internet service provider (ISP)
The network telephonic interface l75 is located on the network site 125
separated by network server I 20. The network telephonic interface 175 is
connected
zu and communicates, via connection I-l5, with the telephonic network
interface 16~ at the
telephonic switch 110. The nework telephonic interface 175 is preferably a
modem
The connection 145 preferably includes telephone system which consists of
numerous
computer networks and switching equipment for establishing a private circuit,
on either a
private or public network, having a plurality of switched based connections.
z5 Fig. 3 is a signal flow diagram showing the method of transmitting
communication signals performed at the communication system 100 of Fig ~ The
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following examples are illustrative of the operation of the communication
system 100 in
a electronic commerce application and two way voice or tone communication. For
exemplary purposes, computer device l05 is described as a personal computer
(PC), the
computer interface circuit 150 is a standard computer modem, the telephonic
switch l 10
is a standard telephonic switch such as the SESS digital switch from Lucent
Technologies, Inc., the communication network server 170 is an ISP, the
network 180 is
the worldwide Internet, the network server 120 is a computer system connected
to the
Internet, the network site 125 is a web page, the network site telephonic
interface 175 is
a standard modem and the connection 145 is a standard telephonic network.
to As seen in Fig. 3, in step 185, the computer device 105 sends a signal to
the
telephonic switch 110 that instructs the telephonic switch 1 10 to establish a
connection
with the communication network server 170. In step 190, the telephonic switch
I 10
sends a connection signal to the communication network server 170 to establish
a
connection with the network l 80 The communication network server 170, in step
I ~~~.
establishes a connection with the network I 80. In step 200, the communication
nem ork
server 170 responds by sending a reply signal that the connection with the
network I 30
is established. In step 205, the telephonic switch 110 informs the computer
device 105
that a connection to the network 180 exists.
In step 210, the computer device 105 communicates with the network 180 and
2o finds the network site 125. In step ? I 5, the computer device 105
communicates w ith the
network site 125. In step 220, the network site 125 sends a query signal to
the cumhumr
device 105 which queries whether to initiate a point to point signal
connection I-i~
between the network site 125 and the computer device 105 In step 225, the
cony,ut~r
device 105 responds to the query ai~;nal by requesting a point to point
connection woh
the network site 125 by sending a re,ponse signal to the network site 125. In
reap~~n.e
to the response signal from the computer device 105, the network site 125, in
aep ~ ~n.
sends a data signal containing telephone identification data for the network
site I=~ t~~
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the computer device 105. The computer device 105, in step 235, then sends a
control
signal, via such interfaces as an application programming interface (API) or
by using
the telephony off hook flash followed by *signalling (e.g. *90) and the
destination
number. , to the telephonic switch 1 l0 requesting a point to point connection
with the
network site 125. In step 240, the telephonic switch 1 10 establishes a point
to point
connection with the network site I25. Then, in step 245, the computer device
105 and
network site 125 communicate point to point. The point to point connection is
a private
circuit or switched-based connection that is routed from one site to another
site across
either "private facilities" which does not appear on shared public facilities
or public
lu networks.
Illustrative of one form of the invention is a method for transmitting
communication signals from the telephonic switch 1 10, via the communication
newurk
115, to the network server 120 having the network site 125 for communication
with the
computer device 105 coupled with the telephonic switch 110. The steps of
connecting,
t5 the telephonic switch 1 10 to the network site 125 via the communication
network I I s,
and establishing communication across the point to point path (signaling path
14~ )
between the telephonic switch 1 10 and the network site 125 are performed
The step of establishing the point to point path 145 further includes the app:
~,t
creating, at the network site 125, the data signal containing the telephone
identitic,itmn
2e number for the network site I 25. and establishing a telephonic call from
the telephunm
switch 1 10 to the network site 1''S using the data signal. The step of
creating the tiara
signal further includes the steps of creating a query signal at the network
site I 2~.
transmitting the query signal tom the network site 125 to the computer device
I n~
creating a response signal at the computer device 105, and transmitting the
respun:~
2, signal from the computer device l05 to the network site 125. The step of
estahli.hm'_
the telephonic call further includes the steps of transmitting the data signal
t~um the
network site 125 to the computer dev ire I Os, transmitting a control signal,
mnt'm~n~_
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the telephone identification number of the network site 125, from the computer
device
105 to the telephonic switch 1 10 and connecting the telephonic switch 1 10 to
the
network site 125 using the control signal.
While communicating point to point, the computer device 105 and network site
s 125 may exchange secure information such as financial account data, credit
card data.
personal data, or voice two way communication. In the example of two way
communication, the computer device 105 possess software, similar to commonly
available Internet telephone programs (some of which are embodiment in web
browses
produced by Netscape Communication, Inc. and Microsoft, Inc.), that allow the
lu computer device 105 to simultaneously support a telephone connection with
the nework
site 125. The difference is that these programs only allow the computer device
l Os to
connect the telephone call over the Internet. The system 100 of the present
invention
allows the telephone connection from the computer device 105 to the network
;ite 1 '_'
to be via connection 145, Fig. 2. As such, the computer device 105 and network
:ite
t5 125 are connected simultaneously through the Internet, via the
communication nemmrk
115, and the telephone network via a point to point telephone connection 145
While the specification in this invention is described in relation to certain
implementations or embodiments, many details are set forth for the purpose of
illustration. Thus, the foregoing merely illustrates the principles of the
invention Ivr
2o example, this invention may have other specific forms without departing
from it, .Inert or
essential characteristics. The described arrangements are illustrative and not
re>trmm
To those skilled in the art, the invention is susceptible to additional
implementam~n. ~~r
embodiments and certain of the detail; described in this application can be
warred
considerably without departing from the basic principles of the invention. It
wll thn. he
?5 appreciated that those skilled in the art will be able to devise various
arrangements
which, although not explicitly described or shown.herein, embody the
principle: ut tl~e
invention are thus within its spirit and scope.
