MXPA97003664A - System and method for assigning route to calls, based on information of fixing prices of the call in time r - Google Patents

Abstract

A system for assigning route to calls according to call price setting data is described, where the call price setting data is updated in real time. In a preferred embodiment, a Real-Time Analysis Machine (RAE) sets the price for calls in real time by applying customer-specific data to the Automatic Accounting Accounting (AMA) records. The call data with fixed price generated by the RAE are stored in the summary database (SD -Summary Database). When a particular client initiates a call, the originating network switch can retrieve some or all of the call data with fixed price from the SD and use the recovered data as a basis for deciding how to assign route to the flame

Description

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ASSIGNING ROUTE TO CALLS, BASED ON PRICE SETTING INFORMATION OF THE CALL IN REAL TIME FIELD OF THE INVENTION. This invention relates to communication networks and, more particularly, to a system and method for assigning route to calls, based on pricing information of the real-time call.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION. The use of automatic accounting systems for the price of telephone calls is well known in the art of communication networks. In a typical automatic accounting system, when a call is dialed for the first time, the control team in the originating office determines whether the call can be billed (i.e., not covered by a monthly quote). If the call can be billed, an accounting record is created for the purpose of recording: the call telephone number; the number of the receiving telephone; the time the call was answered; and the time when the call was terminated. The information in the accounting record can then be used to "quote" the call. REF: 24253 The price of the call refers to the process by which the charge for the call is determined. Involves: (1) calculating the distance between the call and demanded offices; and (2) apply the appropriate rate - based on the calculated distance, the date on which the call was made, the time of the day on which the call was made, and the duration of the call. The quote is not specific to the customer and is done in a conventional manner in batches. It must be distinguished from the billing, which is specific to the customer. In addition, although invoicing is conventionally done in batches, such as quotation, batch times for billing and quotation are usually different. Billing is the process of adding the customer's quotes over a period of time to determine the customer's account for the period. Typically, the period is one month and the sum gives the customer's monthly telephone bill. An architecture commonly used to generate customer accounts is shown in Figure 1. Referring to Figure 1, a call telephone 102, a demanded telephone 104, a telephone network switch 106, and a Database are shown. of the Details of the Call (CDD -Cali Detail Datábase) 108. A record of the Automatic Message Accounting (AMA -Automatic Message Accounting), represented by the block 110 is also shown. As indicated in the figure, a call billable can be initiated on the telephone 102 and assigned route through the switch 106, eg, a switch of the American Telephone & Telegraph Co., Inc. (AT & T) 4ESS, to the telephone 104. The switch generates the AMA 110 register, which includes the information necessary to quote the call. The AMA record is passed to the CDD where it is stored until the end of the customer's billing period. At the end of the billing period, the AMA 110 record, and all other AMA records generated for the customer, are retrieved from the CDD and used to calculate the customer's account. One way to generate a customer's account is to simply calculate a charge for each AMA record stored in the CDD and then add the charges. However, generating an account usually involves more than a lump sum. Modifications to the total may be necessary. Typically, modifications to the total are necessary due to the vagueness of the quotation system to apply a general quote to each call, without taking into consideration if any customer subscribes to a service or billing plan. For example, customers who subscribe to plans, such as AT &T True USA, may be subject to discounts on some or all of their calls; however, a general quote, which is not taken into account for the plan (s), is applied to all quotable customer calls. Therefore, at the end of the billing period, modifications must be made to the client's total account to reflect the approved discount (s). After the account is modified to reflect the discount (s), it is sent to the customer for payment.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION It has been recognized that, because current billing systems can not provide quotation records incorporating the necessary modifications to reflect a particular billing plan, these procedures are necessarily postponed until the end of the billing period. As things stand, certain types of billing options can not be implemented. However, in the competitive market of the telecommunications service, it is advantageous for the service provider to offer as many billing alternatives as possible. In this aspect, the invention of the common destiny, presented concurrently, pending North American patent application entitled: SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR THE FIXATION OF PRICES OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS TRANSACTIONS (File of the President No. Jagadish 10-3-4), provides a system and a method to perform - the real-time processing of accounting records so that data is generated, from the call to which price was set, which reflects the billing services to which a particular customer can subscribe. In contrast, the present invention provides a system and method for using the data of the call to which the price was fixed, of the invention Jagadish 10-3-4, as the basis for assigning route to the calls. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, a Real-Time Analysis Machine (RAE-Real-Time Analysis Engine) updates customer accounts in real-time, applying customer-specific data to accounting records. In a typical update, a customer initiates a call that has routing assignment through a switch of the originating telephone network. The switch generates an accounting record for the call and the record is passed to the RAE, where the call is quoted. The RAE then assigns the quoted call to a customer, locates that data from the customer's account and applies any specific discount from the customer to the quoted call. The process of quotation and discount of a call is called "set the price of the call", and the result of the price setting process is called "value of the call with assigned price". Once the value of a call with assigned price is generated, for the call of the customer- it can be added to other call values with a price assigned to the client, to produce a current account (a type of information summary) for the client . Because the server makes the real-time price of the call, the client's current account can be kept up-to-date on a real-time basis. Preferably, the customer's current account is stored in a Summary Database (SD-Summary Database) within the RAE, and the values of the customer's assigned price call are stored in the CDD. In addition to maintaining customers' current accounts, the RAE can be used to maintain other types of summary information for clients. For example, a customer can subscribe to a plan in which calls made during the hours between 5:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. receive a 10% discount, in which case it is useful to keep a summary field containing the number of minutes of the calls that the customer made during the discount period. In the preferred modality, the summary information, in addition to the current accounts, is stored in the SD together with the current accounts. Whenever a client initiates a call, the originating switch may consult in the SD all, or a portion, of that stored summary information of the client. The query is placed through a data link that connects the switch with the RAE. This same data link can be used to transport the information required in the query from the RAE to the switch. Once the required information is received on the switch, the switch can use it to decide how to assign a route to the customer's call.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES Figure 1 is a block diagram of a previous telephone billing system. Figure 2 is a blog diagram of a telephone call billing system according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. Figure 3 is a block diagram of an alternative telephone call billing system, in accordance with the present invention. Figure 4 is a block diagram of a second alternative system for billing telephone calls, according to the present invention. Figure 5 is a flow chart showing the steps involved in generating real-time call prices and customer balances in real time, in accordance with the present invention. Figure 6 is a block diagram of a telephone call billing system, according to the present invention, in which calls can be assigned to a route based on real-time pricing information. Figure 7 is a block diagram of an alternative telephone billing system, according to the present invention, in which calls can be assigned to route based on real-time pricing information. Figure 8 is a block diagram of a second alternative telephone billing system, according to the present invention, in which calls can be assigned to a route based on real-time pricing information.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Referring to Figure 2, a block diagram of a telephone system according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention is shown. As can be seen from the Figure, a call can be initiated on a first telephone 202 and directed to a second telephone 204. The call is assigned to a route through a network switch, 206, which generates an AMA register, 210, for the call and passes the AMA record to a CDD 208. It should be noted here that there is an abundance of protocols and transmission media that can be used to pass the data from the switch to the CDD. For example, suitable protocols include the well-known File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and the Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol; and suitable transmission means include a pair of shielded braided wires, fiber optic lines, coaxial cable and wired links. In addition, these protocols and means are suitable for use in all transfers and data queries described below. In any case, once the AMA record has been passed to the CDD, it is available for use in setting the price of the call. For this purpose, the AMA register is passed to a Real Time Analysis Machine (RAE) 212, which can be a general-purpose computer capable of running the software necessary to implement the invention. The RAE applies any customer-specific billing parameters to the AMA record to produce a processed AMA record. Then the AMA record and the processed AMA record return to the CDD for storage. The method of returning the data to the CDD is described in the co-pending, commonly assigned US patent application, Series No. 08 / 607,983-entitled "Compression and Buffering of a Stream with Data Extraction Requirements" -whose application is incorporated here as a reference The RAE performs its functions at the moment in which the switch passes the AMA register to the CDD (ie, it makes the fixing of the price of the call in real time), in order to achieve the real-time processing of the AMA registers. , the invention must solve two main obstacles. First, customer-specific data is fragmented across multiple business units, without any cohesive notion of an integrated customer profile. This situation is shown in Figure 2, which shows various databases of the profile of the client, 214, 216 and 218. As shown in the Figure, the invention solves this obstacle through the use of a database of the client profile, integrated, located within the RAE. The software tools update the profile database of the integrated client in response to the updates of the individual client profiles, 214, 216 and 218, so that the integrated database always contains current information about all the users The second obstacle to real-time pricing of telephone calls is the total volume of the customer and the data of the telephone call. The volume makes it difficult to store, quote and request call data in real time. To solve this obstacle, the invention accumulates summary information as each individual call record (AMA) is received and quoted in real time. Generally, it is desirable for a telephone network to maintain a customer's current account. Accordingly, one type of accumulated summary information may be current accounts for each customer in the network. However, it may be useful to accumulate other types of summary information for particular clients. The nature of the accumulated summary information for a particular client depends on the services subscribed by that client. For example, a customer can subscribe to a plan in which calls made during the hours between 5:00 p.m. and 9:00 a.m. can receive a discount of 10%; in which case it is useful to keep a summary field that contains the number of minutes of the calls the customer has made during the discount period. It can also be useful to accumulate summary information through clients. For example, it may be desirable, for marketing purposes, to know the total expense of the customers in a particular plan, for a given billing period. In this case, the prices of all the calls made under the plan in question, without taking into account the customer, can be added to the given contribution period to provide a total current expenditure in the plan.

In any case, the summary information is stored in a summary database (SD -Summary Datábase) 213, which is located within the RAE. Accordingly, in the preferred embodiment, the AMA registers and the processed AMA registers are stored in the CDD, while the summary information is stored in the SD. However, it should be noted that many alternative storage schemes can be employed, without departing from the spirit of the invention. For example, in an alternative scheme, the AMA records are stored in the CDD, the summary information is stored in the SD, and the processed AMA records are stored in the CDD and the SD. There are many applications in which the call price setting data, provided by the present invention, can be used. These include those situations in which a person rents telephone equipment or services and must pay for the use of the equipment or service at the end of the rental period. The present invention allows the leasing company to invoice the use without adding any hardware or software in the rental equipment. All that is required is for the leasing company to have access to the data provided by the present invention. One way to provide this access is to allow the leasing company to consult the SD and / or CDD directly through a network connection.

An example of a leasing application for the present invention involves including cell phones in rental cars. The car leasing company can bill for the inclusion of the cell phone based on the landlord's use. This is done by resetting the cell phone account at the time of the lease and placing a query to the network that serves the phone at the time it is returned. The balance of the cell phone account, which is kept current in accordance with the present invention, is simply added to the client's lease account. As an option, the leasing client can be informed with a detailed account that includes the price of each call made during the lease period. Referring now to Figure 3, a preferred, alternative embodiment of a telephone system according to the present invention is shown. As shown in the Figure, a call can be initiated on a first telephone 302 and directed to a second telephone 304. The call is assigned to a route by a switch on the network 306, which generates an AMA 310 register for the call . The AMA record is passed to an RAE 312 that applies client-specific parameters to the AMA record to produce a processed AMA record. The AMA record and the processed AMA record are then passed to a CDD 308 for storage. Like the RAE of Figure 2, the RAE of Figure 3 includes an SD 313. The RAE of Figure 3 also includes an integrated client profile, although it should be noted that for the simplicity of the presentation the profile databases of the individual customer are not shown in Figure 3, nor in the Figures that follow. Also, like the RAE in Figure 2, the RAE in Figure 3 accumulates summary information as each individual call record is received and quoted in real time. The summary information is stored in SD 313. As in the embodiment described above, alternative schemes may be employed for the storage of AMA records, processed AMA records and summary information. Figure 4 shows another preferred embodiment of a telephone system according to the present invention. In the embodiment of Figure 4, as in the previous modalities, a call initiated on a first telephone 402 can be directed to a second telephone 404 through a network switch 406, which generates an AMA 410 register. However, in the modality of Figure 4, the AMA record is passed to a trading complex (RC -Rating Complex) 412. The RC is a unit that performs the functions of the CDD and the RAE and can, therefore, be characterized as a combined CDD and RAE. As shown in the figure, the RC can include an SD 413, for the storage of the summary information, separated from the AMA registers and the processed AMA registers. As in the embodiments described above, alternative schemes may be used for the storage of AMA records, processed AMA records and summary information. It should be noted that, although the three modalities discussed above show a call that starts from a first telephone and goes to a second telephone, it is possible that calls may be initiated by, and addressed to, many different types of communication devices. For example, a call can be initiated by a fax machine and directed to a personal computer. In addition, a call can be initiated by a single communication device and address multiple communication devices. For example, a call can be initiated on a fax machine and directed to multiple independent personal computers. For purposes of this description, each case of a single initial call, which is directed to a different terminating device, will be considered an independent call. Figure 5 shows, in the form of a flow chart, a procedure that can be used by an RAE to perform real-time processing of the AMA records for a customer and maintain a current account for the customer. In the following description of the flow diagram, reference will be made to the modality shown in Figure 2. After receiving an AMA record of the CDD 208, the RAE 212 of the first stage takes it to quote the call (step 302) . Then you must assign the quoted call to the client (step 304), so that client-specific parameters can be applied to the call. Several well-known techniques can be used to assign the quoted call to the client. One of these techniques uses Automatic Number Identification (ANI -Automatic Number Identification). In an ANI system, the number of the telephone station from which the call is initiated is determined and used to identify the party who initiated the call. Accordingly, in the embodiment of Figure 2, the telephone number 202 can be determined and passed to the RAE together with the AMA record. The RAE can then cross-reference the number with the customer profile, which contains the customer-specific data that will be used for the current call. Once the appropriate profile has been determined, the RAE applies the customer-specific data to the quoted call to produce a value of the call with fixed price (step 306). The value of the call with fixed price can be added to the customer's previous account to create a new account or "checking account" (step 308). Finally, the value of the call with fixed price (processed AMA register) is stored in the CDD and the current account (summary information) is stored in the SD (step 312). As described in relation to Figure 2, an alternative scheme is to store both the value of the call with fixed price and the current account in the SD; in which case step 312 would involve storing the value of the call with fixed price and the current account, which is collectively called the data of the call with fixed price, to the SD. As an additional step in the procedure in Figure 5, the RAE can adjust charges for previous calls, to reflect certain types of billing plans (step 310). For example, a customer can subscribe to a plan in which the customer receives a conditional 10% discount on all calls, with the condition that the customer exceeds $ 100.00 in the total charges for a given period of account. In such a case, calls will initially be billed at the total quote, until the time the customer reaches $ 100.00 of total charges. Therefore, if the customer reaches $ 100.00 before the end of the billing period, not only will successive calls need to be reduced by 10%, but all previous calls will need to be reduced by 10%. This requires that the prices generated for the previous calls be adjusted retroactively. The data of the call with fixed price, provided through the RAE, can be used as a basis for making decisions about the routing of the call. One modality capable of performing this function is the one shown in Figure 6. Figure 6 is the same as Figure 2 with two exceptions: (l) the omission of the databases of the individual customer profile and (2) adding a data link, 614. As shown in the Figure, a call can be initiated on a telephone 602 and assigned to route to a telephone 604 through a network switch 606. The switch generates an AMA register 610 which is passed to a CDD 608 and then continue to an RAE 612 for processing. As described above, the RAE can use the AMA registers to generate call data with a fixed price in the form of fixed call and current account values. This call data with fixed price can be stored in the SD 613. As part of the route assignment process of a call, the switch 606 can query the RAE some or all the data of the call with fixed price via the link of the call. data 614. In this way, the data returned in response to the query can be used by the network and / or the client to decide how the route will be assigned to the call. A method that can be used to query the RAE is described in the co-pending, commonly-assigned US patent application, Series No. 08 / 446,170 - entitled "Method for Querying Incrementally Maintained Databases" - the application of which is incorporated herein by reference. An illustrative case in which the call is assigned a route based on the data of the call with fixed price is described below, with reference to Figure 6. As part of a car rental agreement, to a customer You are provided with a cell phone. The customer is not charged for the cell phone based on usage, however, the client must not exceed a predetermined use concession during the rental period. The amount of use concession used by the customer is maintained as summary information by the RAE. When the customer initiates a call from the cellular phone (represented by the telephone 602) the switch 606, which may be the switch of the originating office, consults the RAE, via the data link 614, to determine if the client has or not a sufficient, remaining concession to complete the call to the desired termination station (represented by telephone 604). If the client does not have a sufficient, remaining concession, switch 606 does not route the call to telephone 604, but rather takes an alternative action, such as allowing the customer to dial an alternate number. As an additional feature, the network can initiate an announcement to the customer via a voice response unit informing the customer that he has no concession sufficient to cover the desired call and that the customer can dial an alternative number. Many variations are possible in the rental scenario described above. For example, after the beginning of a call by the client that rents, a query can be generated and an indication that the client has exceeded its concession can be returned. However, instead of simply preventing the customer from making the call, the customer may be notified that their account has been exceeded and may be given the option to continue with an additional cost. In addition, there are many alternative possible modalities of the system of Figure 6, each of which are capable of using call data with fixed price, in real time, to assign route to calls. One of these alternative modalities is done by making a small modification to the modality shown in Figure 6. Instead of providing a data link from the switch to the RAE, a two-way data link, 616, can be provided between the switch and the CDD. Therefore, queries from the switch can be made directly to the CDD, and the CDD can pass the desired data back to the switch. Of course, in this modality it is necessary that the desired data are present in the CDD. In this regard, the system can be adjusted so that the RAE passes all the desired possible data, e.g., current accounts back to the CDD when it performs its pricing calculations in real time. Additional modalities capable of using the real-time pricing data are shown in Figure 7 and 8. Figures 7 and 8 are analogous to Figures 3 and 4, respectively. Figure 7 shows telephones 702 and 704, network switch 706, AMA register 710, RAE 712 (including SD 713) and CDD 708. Figure 7 also shows a two way connection 714 between the switch and the RAE and a two-way connection 716 between the RAE and the CDD. These connections facilitate the query of the RAE as part of the route assignment process to the call. In particular, the two-way connection 714 allows the RAE to pass to the switch information, which has been required by the switch as part of a query. The two-way connection 716 allows the transfer of information from the CDD to the RAE in case the information required by the switch is stored in the CDD and is not immediately available in the RAE; in which case the RAE can consult the CDD for information and then pass it to the switch. Figure 8 shows telephones 802 and 804, network switch 806, AMA register 810 and RC 812 (including SD 813). Figure 8 also shows a two-way connection 814 between the switch and the RC. The two-way connection allows the RC to answer the queries that are generated by the switch as part of the route assignment process. It is noted that, in relation to this date, the best method known to the applicant to carry out the aforementioned invention, is that which is clear from the present description of the invention. Having described the invention as above, property is claimed as contained in the following:

Claims (12)

1. A method for assigning route to a call that is made over a network, characterized in that it comprises: (a) directing the call to the switch of a network; (b) generate a query on the network switch and pass the query to a database, where the database has stored the data of the call with fixed price, current for a client of the network; (c) retrieving at least a portion of the call data with fixed, current price from the database, in response to the query and; (d) use the recovered portion of the call data with fixed, current price to assign route to the call within the network.

2. The method, according to claim 1, characterized in that the step of recovering at least a portion of the call data with set price, current, comprises recovering a current account for the network client and where the step of using the portion recovered from the call data with fixed price, current, comprises using the recovered current account to assign route to the call within the network.

3. The method, according to claim 1, characterized in that the call data with fixed price, current, comprise a current account for the network client.

4. A method for assigning route to a call that is made over a network, characterized in that it comprises the steps of: (a) directing the call to the switch of a network; (b) generate a query in the network switch and pass the query to a database, where the database has stored in its internal data of the call with fixed price, current, for a customer of the network; (c) retrieving at least a portion of the call data with fixed, current price from the database in response to the query; (d) determine, based on the recovered potion of call data with fixed price, current, if the call should be assigned to route within the network; and (e) assign route to the call, within the network, when it is determined that the call must be assigned to the route; and block the call when it is determined that the call should not be assigned to the route.

5. The method, according to claim 4, characterized in that the step of recovering at least a portion of the call data with set price, current, comprises recovering a current account for the network client; and wherein the step of using the recovered portion of the call data with fixed, current price, comprises using the current account to assign route to the call within the network.

6. The method, according to claim 4, characterized in that the call data with fixed price, current, comprise a current account for the network customer.

7. A system for assigning route to a call that is made over a network, characterized in that it comprises: (a) means for directing the call to a network switch; (b) means for generating a query on the network switch; (c) a database to receive the query from the network switchboard where the database has stored in its internal data of the call with fixed price, current, for a customer of the network; (d) means for recovering at least a portion of the call data with fixed, current price from the database, in response to the query; Y - - (e) means for assigning route to the call according to the recovered portion of call data with fixed, current price.

8. The system, according to claim 7, characterized in that the recovered portion of the call data with fixed price, current, includes a current account for the customer of the network and where the means to assign route to the call, according to with the recovered portion of the call data with fixed, current price, they comprise means for assigning route to the call according to the current account.

9. The method, according to claim 7, characterized in that the call data with fixed price, current, comprise a current account for the network client.

10. A system for assigning route to a call on a network, characterized in that it comprises: (a) means for directing the call to a network switch; (b) means for generating a query on the network switch; (c) a database to receive the query of the network switch, where the database has - - stored in its internal data of the call with fixed price, current, for a client of the network; (d) means for recovering at least a portion of the call data with fixed, current price from the database, in response to the query; (e) means for making a determination, based on the data portion of the call with fixed price, current, recovered if route is assigned to the call within the network; and (f) means for assigning route to the call within the network when it is determined that the call must be assigned to route and means to block the call when it is determined that the call should not be assigned to route.

11. The system, according to claim 10, characterized in that the recovered portion of the call data with fixed price, current, include a current account for the network client and where the means to assign route to the call, according to with the recovered portion of the call data with fixed, current price, they comprise the means to allocate route to the call according to the current account.

12. The method, according to claim 10, characterized in that the call data with fixed price, current, comprise a current account for the network client.