WO2000028722A1

WO2000028722A1 - Wired phone system and wired phone terminal using a plurality of telephone numbers

Info

Publication number: WO2000028722A1
Application number: PCT/KR1999/000666
Authority: WO
Inventors: Deok Woo Kim
Original assignee: Woorigisool Inc.
Priority date: 1998-11-06
Filing date: 1999-11-06
Publication date: 2000-05-18
Also published as: AU1080900A; KR20000031728A

Abstract

The present invention relates to a wired phone system providing a single wired telephone with two or more telephone numbers. The wired phone system in accordance with the present invention comprises a wired phone switching node EX outputting ringing signals differently according to call requested phone number contained in the received call request signal, and a wired phone terminal TPN outputting call arrival information differently according to the ringing signal received from the wired phone switching node EX. The phone system and the terminal according to the present invention has many advantages. At first, subscribers can use multiple phone numbers with single wired phone. Secondly, various call arrival information according to the plurality of phone numbers enables a subscriber to recognize what phone number has been requested for call connection among a plurality of phone numbers assigned. Thirdly, various call processing and call response can be performed according to each call connection request or call requested phone number.

Description

D E S C R I P T I O N

WIRED PHONE SYSTEM AND WIRED PHONE TERMINAL USING A PLURALITY OF TELEPHONE NUMBERS

1. Technical Field

The present invention relates to a wired phone system providing a single phone terminal with a plurality of phone numbers and making it possible to output call arrival information which is different depending upon the call requested phone number.

2. Background Art

In general, wired telephone terminals are regarded as the most universal communication means. The type of a wired telephone terminal is classified into a corded phone terminal and a cordless phone terminal. The cordless phone terminal refers to a phone terminal having additional portable apparatus, that is, a cordless handset used for communicating with main set of a corded phone terminal. This cordless phone terminal has largely expanded its cordless communication range through the lately-developed cordless phone using high frequency band of 900Mhz. The construction and operation of a conventional wired phone system and a wired phone terminal will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings of FIG. 1 and FIG. 2. FIG. 1 depicts a conceptual block diagram of the public switched telephone network (PSTN) , which consists of many the telephone terminals TPs and several wired telephone switching nodes EXs connected mutually. FIG. 2 depicts a block diagram of the conventional wired phone terminal including a hook switch 1 selectively receiving the signals from a wired phone switching node EX according to the on/off status of a hook button; a bell 5 alarming a call arrival by generating call arrival sound according to the ringing signal received through the hook switch 1; a microphone 4 converting the user's voice into an electric signal; a speaker 3 converting electric signal received through the hook switch 1 into sound; a transceiver 2 separating the superimposed signal into transmitting one and received one; a dial key pad 9 for entering a user-wanted phone number; a dual tone modulation frequency (DTMF) generator 6 outputting frequency modulated signal having two frequencies corresponding to a phone number selected by the dial key pad 9; a pulse generator 7 outputting a pulse signal whose duty is corresponding to a phone number selected by the dial key pad 9; and a microcomputer 8 controlling operations of the DTMF generator 6 or the pulse generator 7 depending upon current dialing mode (mechanical (M) or electronic (E) ) selected by contacted position signal E/M of a mode switch.

The operation of a conventional wired phone terminal of above construction will now be described. The call receiving operation of the wired phone terminal TP is as follows. Where a call request signal is arrived in a wired phone switching node depicted on the FIG. 1, a call requested phone number is detected from the call request signal, that is, a telephone number dialed by a caller is extracted, and a ringing signal is transmitted from the same or another wired phone switching node to a target telephone to notify that a call connection is requested.

The transmitted ringing signal is inputted in the bell 5 through the hook switch 1. After that, a sound alarming the arrival of a call connection request signal is outputted.

The call operation of the wired phone terminal TP is as follows. Where the mode switch is set to electronic (E) mode by a user, the microcomputer 8 receives phone number entered by the user through dial key pad 9, and controls the DTMF generator 6 according to the set electronic (E) dialing mode. The DTMF generator 6 generates two frequency modulated signals corresponding to the entered phone digits under the control of the microcomputer 8, and outputs them to a public switched telephone network (PSTN) through the hook switch 1 which has been already connected to the telephone network by user' s hook-off, so that call connection with a phone terminal dialed by the caller is made. If the mode switch is set to mechanical mode (M) by the user, the microcomputer 8 receives phone number entered by the user through the dial key pad 9, and controls the pulse generator 7 according to the set mechanical (M) dialing mode. Therefore, the pulse generator 7 generates signals whose pulse width is different according to the entered phone digits under the control of the microcomputer 8, and outputs them to a public switched telephone network (PSTN) .

However, the conventional wired phone has such a drawback that a phone terminal has only one telephone number assigned to itself. Therefore, users who want to have plural phone numbers have no choice but to purchase another wired phone terminal to which another phone number to use is assigned, which requires additional cable installation.

3. Disclosure of Invention

It is an object of the present invention to provide a wired phone system and a wired phone terminal using a plurality of telephone numbers. A plurality of telephone numbers are assigned to single wired phone terminal, and call response and call processing can be performed differently according to a called phone number among the assigned plural phone numbers. In the wired phone system in accordance with the present invention, which has been proposed to achieve the mentioned objectives, at first, the wired phone switching node checks whether the phone number to which call connection is requested is subscribed in the multi phone number service or not. According to the check result, a different ringing signal which can discriminate the phone number is transmitted, or prescribed different call processing operation is performed. Secondly the wired phone terminal provides call arrival information which is different according to the ringing signal received from the wired phone switching node, or performs call response operation prescribed differently according to the received ringing signal. With this, subscribers can use multiple phone numbers with single wired phone, and can take versatile call processing and call response in accordance with the multiple phone numbers . Accordingly, subscribers can distinguish the call arrival and decide whether or not he or she will respond to the arrived call. 4. Brief Description of Drawings

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the invention, illustrate the preferred embodiment of this invention, and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the present invention.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a typical block diagram of general public switched telephone network (PSTN) ;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a conventional wired phone terminal;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a wired phone switching node in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a wired phone terminal embodying the present invention; FIGS. 5A and 5B are flow charts for describing the operations of a wired phone switching node in accordance with the present invention;

FIGS. 6A and 6B are flow charts for describing the operation of a wired phone terminal in accordance with the present invention; and

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of another wired phone terminal embodying the present invention.

5. Modes for Carrying out the Invention

In order that the wired phone system and the wired terminal enabling multi telephone number service according to the present invention may be fully understood, preferred embodiments thereof will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 3 depicts a block diagram of the wired phone switching node EX1 according to the present invention, which includes an interface unit 11 connected to a lot of wired phone terminal and/or another wired phone switching node EX2 for transmitting/receiving call signal and voice signal; a DTMF unit 12 decoding dual tone modulation frequency signal received from the interface unit; a hard disk 16 storing subscribers' information and call processing data of the call requested phone number extracted from the decoded DTMF signal; a data base 17 storing data of voice message and guidance message; a data processing unit 18 for quantizing received voice data in the method of adaptive differential pulse code modulation (ADPCM) and dequantizing compressed voice data; a hook on/off detecting unit 13 detecting whether subscriber lines are closed or opened based on signal received through the interface unit 11; a controller 14 controlling overall operations of all members to process the decoded DTMF signal and hook on/off signal from the subscriber lines; a ringing signal generating unit 15 producing/outputting ringing signal according to the control of the controller 14; a switching unit 19 switching a lot of signal paths of voice signal from/to subscriber lines in high speed ; and a trunk interface 20 interfacing with trunks to other wired phone switching nodes .

The operation of the wired phone switching node EX1 will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings of FIG. 5A and 5B . FIG. 5A and 5B shows a flow charts of call processing the wired phone switching node EX1 according to the present invention. When a call request signal from any wired phone terminal TPN or another wired phone switching node EX2 is arrived (S10) through the interface unit 11, the DTMF unit 12 decodes the arrived call request signal and extracts call connection requested phone number to the controller 14 (Sll) . The controller 14 searches for the requested number in the hard disk 16 storing subscribers' information, and checks whether the extracted phone number is one of subscribed multi-phone numbers or not based on the search result. If it is a general phone number not joined the service using a plurality of phone numbers, normal call processing operation is performed (S20) . If it is a phone number joined the service using a plurality of phone numbers, the call processing data stored in the hard disk 16, that is, call processing data stored in association with the extracted phone number, is checked (S13), and it is decided whether the checked call processing data is pertaining to the conditional call connection or not.

According to the checked result, if the checked call processing data is not applicable to the conditional call connection, the hard disk 16 is searched to retrieve (S15) data designating call ringing type stored in connection with the call connection requested phone number, and the ringing signal generating unit 15 is controlled for outputting a ringing signal corresponding to the retrieved call ringing type (S16) . The ringing signal generating unit 15 may output various ringing signal according to the control of the controller 14. For example, the ringing signal is changed in frequency, amplitude, timing or interval under the control of the controller 14. The alarming sound for call arrival of the wired phone terminal TPN can be outputted differently according to called phone number distinguished by the ringing signal.

After then, the hook on/off detecting unit 13 detects whether a hook button of a telephone is closed, that is, acceptance of call connection request signal , and outputs the detection result to the controller 14. The controller 14 controls the switching unit 19 and the trunk interface 20 according to the call acceptance to set up the signal path between a caller and a callee. If the checked result (S14) is applicable to the conditional call connection, the hard disk 16 is searched to retrieve call processing data stored in connection with the call connection requested phone number, and the operation is controlled for performing various call processing operation according to the retrieved call processing data. That is, if retrieved call processing data indicates the call rejection (S211), a guidance message stored in the data base 17 is read out and outputted to the data processing unit 18. The data processing unit 18 converts the voice data of the guiding message into voice signal and outputs it (S223) . In addition, as for the guiding messages corresponding to the call rejection, it is more desirable to adopt indirect and polite expression rather than announcement expressing call denial directly so that a caller may not feel unpleasant. For example, this guiding message can be like this, "It is impossible to connect the requested subscriber now because the line is busy. Please call it again later".

If the retrieved call processing data indicates time- conditional call connection (S212), the controller 14 detects current time (S216) and compares (S217) it with call connection restriction time pre-stored in the hard disk 16 for the called telephone number. If the current time is within the preset call connection restriction time, a guiding message such as the above expression representing the call rejection is retrieved and transmitted to the caller (S223), and if the current time does not belong to the call connection restriction time (S217), normal call processing operation (S218~S221 belonging to steps of S15 to S18 of FIG. 5A) is accomplished for call connection, which has been described hereinbefore.

If the retrieved call processing data indicates call routing to voice mailing system (S218), a appropriate guiding message stored in the data base 17 is read out, and outputted to the data processing unit 18. The data processing unit 18 converts the guiding message for call routing (S214) into a voice signal and outputs it. This message may be general expression that "Voice mailing service, If you want to record your voice, please record your message after ^λbee' sounds and push the '#' button when the recording finishes." After that, received voice signal is converted to compressed voice data by the data processing unit 18 and is stored in the database 20 together with the call connection requested phone number. Accordingly, if the call connection requested phone number has joined plural wired phone number service, a characteristic ringing signal, which distinguishes the call connection requested phone number among the phone numbers which has joined multi phone number service for single telephone, is transmitted to the wired phone terminal TPN when mailing the recorded voice. In this way explained above, the conditional call connection service is performed by the wired phone switching node EX1. FIG. 4 depicts a block diagram of the wired phone terminal TPN according to the present invention, which includes a hook switch 21 opening or closing the subscriber line which is connected to a wired phone switching node; a bell 25 informing the call arrival through alerting sound according to the ringing signal received through the hook switch 21; a microphone 24 converting user's voice into an electric signal; a speaker 23 converting electric signal received through the hook switch 21 into sound; a transceiver 22 separating the superimposed signal into transmitting one and received one; a dial key pad 29 for entering user- wanted phone numbers; a DTMF generator 26 outputting frequency modulated signal having two frequencies corresponding to a phone number selected by the dial key pad 29; a pulse generator 27 outputting a pulse signal whose duty is corresponding to a phone number selected by the dial key pad 8; a microcomputer 28 controlling operations of the DTMF generator 26 or pulse generator 27 depending upon current dialing mode (mechanical (M) or electronic (E) ) selected by contacted position signal E/M of a mode switch; a memory 30 storing data which is necessary for operation of the microcomputer 28; and a ringing signal detecting unit 31 detecting ringing signal received from the wired phone switching node. The operation of the wired phone terminal TPN of above will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings of FIG. 6A and 6B.

FIG. 6A and 6B shows a flow charts for call response of the wired phone terminal TPN according to the present invention. When a call connection request signal is arrived (S50) from the wired phone switching node of public switched telephone network (PSTN) , the ringing signal detecting unit 31 detects the ringing signal in the call connection request signal and output it to the microcomputer 28. The microcomputer 28 distinguishes and identifies a phone number among assigned multi numbers which is designated to correspond to the received ringing signal, and detects (S52) call response data stored in the memory 30 in connection with the identified phone number. If the stored call response data is not applicable to a conditional call connection (S53), the microcomputer 28 searches for and retrieves (S54) the alerting type data stored in the memory 30, and controls the bell 25 to output call arrival sound corresponding to the alerting type data (S55) . If the wired phone terminal equips a lamp displaying call arrival and a liquid crystal display, the microcomputer 28 makes the lamp flashed differently according to the distinguished phone number, or displays the characters indicating the distinguished phone number on the liquid crystal display, so that a callee can recognize the called phone number with the alerting sound, flashing of lamp, or letters. After that, when the hook switch 21 is closed by the callee, outputting of the call arrival information such as the alerting sound is intercepted (S57) and call connection is accomplished (S58) at the same time. If the stored call response data indicates a conditional call connection (S53), the operation for conditional call connection is performed as follows . When the conditional call connection is set to call rejection (S601), a guiding message for call rejection is transmitted to the switching node and then the microcomputer 28 returns to standby mode of call waiting state (S610) .

When the stored call response data indicates a time- conditional call connection (S602), the microcomputer 28 detects present time from self timer (S606) , and compares with the call restriction time zone pre-stored in the memory 30 by user's selection. If the present time is within the call restriction time zone (S607), the microcomputer 28 transmits the guiding message as in the call rejection mode (S609) , and returns to call waiting state (S610), so that call connection is rejected. Otherwise, the microcomputer 28 accomplishes call connection (S608) through a series of processes in the steps of S54 to S58.

If the stored call response data is assigned to an automatic response (S603), the microcomputer 28 retrieves automatic responding message announcing absence from the memory 30 and then transmits it to the switching node (S604), and performs normal automatic response operation (S605) to store received voice message in a recording medium. The conditional call connection operation such an automatic response is for a wired phone terminal equipping automatic response function.

Accordingly, the wired phone terminal TPN outputs call arrival information such as call arrival sound, lamp flashing and characters which is different depending upon the called phone number, so that the callee can distinguish called phone number among plurality of phone numbers which are being used by him or her based upon the call arrival information. Also the callee can be offered various call response service (ex. conditional call connection) corresponding to the call response data pre stored in the wired phone terminal by himself or herself. FIG. 7 depicts a block diagram of another wired phone terminal embodying the present invention, and the block diagram consists of blocks of a conventional telephone TP and blocks of a call connection controller CM. The conventional telephone blocks includes a hook switch 1 selectively receiving the signals from a wired phone switching node according to the on/off status of a hook button; a bell 5 alarming a call arrival by generating call arrival sound according to the ringing signal received through the hook switch 1; a microphone 4 converting the user's voice into an electric signal; a speaker 3 converting electric signal received through the hook switch 1 into sound; a transceiver 2 separating the superimposed signal into transmitting one and received one; a dial key pad 9 for entering a user-wanted phone number; a DTMF generator 6 outputting frequency modulated signal having two frequencies corresponding to a phone number selected by the dial key pad 9; a pulse generator 7 outputting a pulse signal whose duty is corresponding to a phone number selected by the dial key pad 9; and a microcomputer 8 controlling operations of the DTMF generator 6 or the pulse generator 7 depending upon current dialing mode (mechanical (M) or electronic (E) ) selected by contacted position signal E/M of a mode switch. And the blocks of the call connection controller CM includes a pre positioned switch 41 located in front of the hook switch 1 to connect or cut off the path between a wired phone switching node and this wired phone terminal; a ringing signal detecting unit 42 detecting a ringing signal from the wired phone switching node which is received through the pre positioned switch 41; a microcomputer 43 controlling the pre-positioned switch 41 to connect or cut off the signal path depending upon the ringing signal detection etc, ; and a memory 44 storing data necessary for control operation of the microcomputer 43.

For the operation of the wired phone terminal (especially, the operation of the call connection controller CM) according to another embodiment of the present invention, as described referring to the FIG. 6A and 6B, the memory 44 pre-stores call response data which is necessary to process conditional call connection according to ringing signal transmitted from the wired phone switching node. The microcomputer 43 controls the pre-positioned switch 41 according to call response data identified based on a ringing signal and accomplishes conditional call connection operation (ex. call rejection) .

The call connection controller CM is showing another example to offer various call response according to distinguishable ringing signal. To achieve another conditional call connection described before, that is, time-conditional call connection and automatic response, the call connection controller CM can be redesigned for necessary parts to be added and it may be constructed as an internal part of the wired phone terminal.

The foregoing is provided only for the purpose of illustration and explanation of the preferred embodiments of the present invention, so changes, variations and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

Claims

C L A I M S

1. A wired phone switching node allowing a plurality of telephone numbers for single wired phone terminal, comprising : a first means for detecting a call requested phone number from a received call request signal; a second means for outputting a control signal corresponding to the detected call requested phone number; and a third means for transmitting a ringing signal which is different according to the control signal.

2. A wired phone switching node according to claim 1, further comprising a means for storing various types of ringing signals, each ringing signal being corresponding to one of pre-assigned multi phone numbers.

3. A wired phone switching node according to claim 1, wherein said third means outputs the ringing signal whose format is different according to the control signal.

4. A wired phone switching node according to claim 1, wherein said third means outputs the ringing signal whose frequency is different according to the control signal.

5. A wired phone switching node according to claim 1, wherein said third means outputs the ringing signal whose amplitude is different according to the control signal.

6. A wired phone switching node according to claim 1, wherein said third means further outputs information identifying the call connection requested phone number.

7. A call processing method of a wired phone switching node allowing a plurality of telephone numbers for single wired phone terminal, comprising the steps of:

(a) detecting a call requested phone number from a received call request signal;

(b) checking whether the detected phone number is one of plural numbers joined multi telephone number service; and

(c) outputting a ringing signal differently in accordance with the checked result.

8. A call processing method according to claim 7, wherein said step (c) outputs the ringing signal whose format is different in accordance with the checked result.

9. A call processing method according to claim 7, wherein said step (c) outputs the ringing signal whose frequency is different in accordance with the checked result .

10. A call processing method according to claim 7, wherein said step (c) outputs the ringing signal whose amplitude is different in accordance with the identified result .

11. A call processing method according to claim 7, wherein said step (c) further outputs information identifying the call requested phone number.

12. A wired phone switching node allowing a plurality of telephone numbers for single wired phone terminal, comprising: a first means for detecting a call requested phone number from a received g signal; a second means for outputting a control signal for the call request to be processed differently according to the detected phone number; and a third means for processing the call request according to the control signal.

13. A wired phone switching node according to claim 12, wherein said second means controls said third means to process the call request to be rejected according to the detected phone number.

14. A wired phone switching node according to claim 12, wherein said second means controls said third means to process the call request to be routed to a voice mailing device according to the detected phone number.

15. A wired phone switching node according to claim 12, wherein said second means controls the said third means to process the call request based on a preset call restriction time .

16. A call processing method of a wired phone switching node allowing a plurality of telephone numbers for single wired phone terminal, comprising the steps of:

(a) detecting a call requested phone number from a received call request signal; and

(b) processing the call request differently in accordance with the detected phone number.

17. A wired phone terminal using a plurality of telephone numbers, comprising: a first means for detecting a ringing signal received from a wired phone switching node; a second means for outputting a control signal for a call arrival signal to be outputted differently according to the detected ringing signal; and a third means for outputting the call arrival signal according to the control signal.

18. A wired phone terminal according to claim 17, wherein said second means controls said third means to generate call arrival sound differently according to the detected ringing signal.

19. A wired phone terminal according to claim 17, wherein said second means controls said third means to flicker differently according to the detected ringing s ignal .

20. A wired phone terminal according to claim 17, wherein said second means controls said third means to display characters which are different according to the detected ringing signal.

21. A wired phone terminal using a plurality of telephone numbers, comprising: a first means for detecting a ringing signal received from a wired phone switching node; a second means for outputting a call arrival signal differently according to the detected ringing signal; and a third means for prohibiting said second means from outputting the call arrival signal according to the detected ringing signal.

22. A call response method of a wired phone terminal using a plurality of telephone numbers, comprising the steps of:

(a) detecting a ringing signal received from a wired phone switching node; and

(b) outputting a call arrival signal differently in accordance with the detected ringing signal.

23. A call response method according to claim 22, wherein said step (b) outputs call arrival sound differently according to the detected ringing signal.

24. A call response method according to claim 22, wherein said step (b) flickers differently according to the detected ringing signal.

25. A call response method according to claim 22, wherein said step (b) displays characters which are different according to the detected ringing signal.

26. A call response method of a wired phone terminal using a plurality of telephone numbers, comprising the steps of:

(a) detecting a ringing signal received from a wired phone switching node; and

(b) prohibiting call arrival information from being outputted based on the detected ringing signal.

27. A wired phone system allowing plurality of telephone numbers for single wired phone terminal, comprising: a switching node for outputting a ringing signal which is different according to a call requested phone number contained in a received call request signal; and a wired phone terminal for outputting call arrival information which is different depending upon the ringing signal received from the switching node.

28. A wired phone switching system allowing plurality of telephone numbers for single wired phone terminal, comprising : a switching node for outputting a ringing signal which is different according to the call requested phone number contained in a received call request signal; and a wired phone terminal for prohibiting call arrival information from being outputted based on the ringing signal received from the switching node.

29. A wired phone terminal using a plurality of phone numbers, comprising : a means for detecting a ringing signal received from a wired phone switching node; a means for outputting a control signal to process call connection request according to the detected ringing signal; and a means for selectively establishing signal path to the wired phone switching node according to the control signal,