Title: Personalized universal phone service
Abstract: A gateway device couples a mobile telephone with a data network, such as the Internet, for voice communications. The gateway device is configured to provide a consistent interface with a user of the voice communications facility, independent of the method of user-access to the gateway device, and independent of the access to the data network. The gateway device allows for user-access from both wired and wireless telephone instruments, and provides the user a consistent service profile, independent of the location of the user at the time of access. The gateway device provides a service, such as a conventional "Voice over the Internet" (VoIP) application, that allows the user to place and receive telephone calls to other VoIP users, or to conventional telephone service users. In a preferred embodiment, the user may use a portable gateway device, such as a laptop or handheld computer, to gain access to the data network, or may use publicly available multiple-user gateway devices that are located at airports, hotels, train and bus stations, within transport vehicles such as airplanes, trains, buses, automobiles, and so on. Upon access, the user's service profile, including speed-dial numbers and the like, are provided to the user, via the gateway device currently being used.
Patent Number: 6,970,474 Issued on 11/29/2005 to Sinha
| Inventors:
|
Sinha; Atul N. (Eindhoven, NL)
|
| Assignee:
|
Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Eindhoven, NL)
|
| Appl. No.:
|
598725 |
| Filed:
|
June 21, 2000 |
| Current U.S. Class: |
370/401; 370/392; 370/352 |
| Intern'l Class: |
H04L 012/28 |
| Field of Search: |
370/352-357,389,392,401
709/203,216,225,227
379/881.7,219
455/433
|
References Cited [Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
| 6295293 | Sep., 2001 | Tonnby et al.
| |
| 6304753 | Oct., 2001 | Hartmaier.
| |
| 6359892 | Mar., 2002 | Szlam.
| |
| 6496867 | Dec., 2002 | Beser et al.
| |
| 6560216 | May., 2003 | McNiff et al.
| |
| Foreign Patent Documents |
| 98/11704 | Mar., 1998 | WO.
| |
| 98/37665 | Aug., 1998 | WO.
| |
| 99/05830 | Feb., 1999 | WO.
| |
| 9707607 | Feb., 1999 | WO.
| |
Primary Examiner: Ho; Duc
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Halajian; Dicran
Parent Case Text
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/141,815,
filed Jul. 1, 1999.
Claims
1. A gateway device comprising:
a communication device that is configured to communicate with a mobile telephone
and with multiple telephones,
a network access device that is configured to communicate with a data network,
to provide thereby communications with the mobile telephone as identified by a
user-specific VoIP-name via the data network, and to provide the communications
with the mobile telephone and the multiple telephones based on an IP addressing
scheme, and
a user interface application that is configured to provide a user-dependent interface
to a user of each telephone of the multiple telephones, based on a user-profile
of each user of the multiple telephones, the user-profile of each user being accessible
via the data network.
2. The gateway device of claim 1, wherein the data network includes an Internet network.
3. The gateway device of claim 1, further including
an interface application that is configured to facilitate a connection between
the mobile telephone and another telephone instrument via an IP address that is
associated with the other telephone instrument.
4. The gateway device of claim 1, further including
an interface application that is configured to facilitate a connection between
the mobile telephone and another telephone instrument via an IP address that is
associated with the mobile telephone.
5. A method for using a voice communication device on a data network, comprising:
providing a gateway for interfacing a voice communications network with the data network;
providing a user with a unique VoIP-name;
providing a profile page on the data network, the profile page being associated
with the VoIP-name, the profile page comprising user-specific information;
accessing the profile page using the voice communications device, the voice communications
device having an IP address; and
temporarily associating the VoIP-name with the IP address.
6. The method of claim 5, further including
enabling access to the gateway for interfacing with a wired telephone, and
wherein
the profile page facilitates enabling the user to communicate from either the
mobile telephone or the wired telephone using a common interface that is based
on the profile page.
7. The method of claim 5, further including
enabling access between the gateway and a public telephone network via the data network.
8. The method of claim 5, further comprising:
enabling access between the gateway and a public telephone network via the data
network; and
initiating said voice communication by the public telephone network in response
to a telephone call to a telephone number that is associated with the user.
9. A communication system for using a voice communication device on a data network, comprising:
means for providing a gateway for interfacing a voice communications network
with the data network;
means for providing a user with a unique VoIP-name;
means for providing a profile page on the data network, the profile page being
associated with the VoIP-name, the profile page comprising user-specific information;
means for accessing the profile page using the voice communications device, the
voice communications device having an IP address; and
means for temporarily associating the VoIP-name with the IP address.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of communications, and in particular to
wireless telephones and TCP/IP addressing
2. Description of Related Art
The use of wireless telephones, such as cellular and satellite telephones, continues
to increase. One of the difficulties with the use of cellular telephones is the
incompatibility of telephones in different parts of the world. A telephone that
is compatible with the cellular communications system in the United States, for
example, would not be compatible with the cellular communications system in Europe.
Satellite systems have been developed that use a common communications technique
worldwide, but these systems are typically more expensive to deploy and maintain
than conventional land-based systems.
One of the other difficulties with telephone systems, in general, is the variety
of systems that are used to provide telephone communications. Cellular telephones
are separate and distinct from conventional wired telephone systems such as those
used in a home or office. The telephone system used in an office environment is
often substantially different from a system used at home. This variety provides
different capabilities for different applications, but also introduces the requirement
to learn how to use the variety of capabilities. Often, for example, calls are
inadvertently disconnected when a less experienced person attempts to forward a
call to another party in an office environment. Often, an infrequent cellular telephone
user forgets to press the "send" button, and waits idly for the call to go through.
The existence of the variety of different telephone communication systems can
also make it more difficult to contact someone. An average person is typically
associated with two or more different telephone numbers: a home phone number, an
office phone number, a cellular phone number, a beeper phone number, and so on.
Contacting the person often requires calling these different numbers until the
person is reached. Similarly, each of these different telephone numbers will typically
have an associated message recording capability, and to determine whether he or
she has received a message, the person must contact each of the message recording
means associated with the variety of telephone numbers.
In like manner, the person's "service profile" is created and maintained on each
of the variety of services independently. If the person desires to use the same
speed dial numbers on his or her cell phone, home phone, and office phone, for
example, the telephone numbers and corresponding speed dial number must be entered
into each system.
If a person changes one of his or her associated telephone numbers, as is often
caused by a change of cellular service provider, the person must notify each of
his or her acquaintances. Some of these acquaintances will then have to update
their two or three speed dial lists. If the changed telephone number is associated
with a business, the change will typically necessitate a reprinting of office stationary,
business cards, and so on. These telephone-change induced problems often prevent
the person from taking advantage of potentially more economical service plans,
because the potential savings are offset by the ancillary costs and inconveniences
caused by a telephone number change.
Cellular telephone systems have an additional disadvantage in that the service
is specific to a particular telephone instrument. A very small cellular telephone
instrument is convenient for travel, but may not be suitable for extended use in
an office environment. Existing cellular systems, however, do not allow two different
telephone instruments to be associated with the same telephone number. To gain
the convenience of a small portable telephone instrument and a larger office telephone
instrument, a person must incur the cost of two individual telephone accounts,
and must incur the aforementioned inconveniences associated with multiple telephone numbers.
Application programs are available that allow telephone, facsimile, and
videoconferencing via the Internet. Generally, this adds yet another number or
identifier to the list of telephone numbers associated with an individual.
Some of the inconveniences of multiple telephone numbers may be overcome by
using call-forwarding on select lines to forward all incoming calls to a single
number, but there is often a cost associated with such a call-forwarding option.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of this invention to provide a telephone service that can be
used
world-wide. It is a further object of this invention to provide a consistent telephone
interface regardless of the provider of the telephone service.
These objects and others are achieved by providing a gateway device that couples
a mobile telephone with a data network, such as the Internet, for voice communications.
The gateway device is configured to provide a consistent interface with a user
of the voice communications facility, independent of the method of user-access
to the gateway device, and independent of the access to the data network. The gateway
device allows for user-access from both wired and wireless telephone instruments,
and provides the user a consistent service profile, independent of the location
of the user at the time of access. The gateway device provides a service, such
as a conventional "Voice over the Internet" (VoIP) application, that allows the
user to place and receive telephone calls to other VoIP users, or to conventional
telephone service users. In a preferred embodiment, the user may use a portable
gateway device, such as a laptop or handheld computer, to gain access to the data
network, or may use publicly available multiple-user gateway devices that are located
at airports, hotels, train and bus stations, within transport vehicles such as
airplanes, trains, buses, automobiles, and so on. Upon access, the user's service
profile, including speed-dial numbers and the like, are provided to the user, via
the gateway device currently being used.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The invention is explained in further detail, and by way of example, with reference
to the accompanying drawings wherein:
FIG. 1 illustrates an example block diagram of a gateway device in accordance
with this invention.
FIG. 2 illustrates an example block diagram of a communications system that
uses gateway devices in accordance with this invention.
Throughout the drawings, the same reference numerals indicate similar
or corresponding features or functions.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The invention addresses offering a user a phone service, which he/she can access
from anywhere and at anytime in the world through a single personalized device
(phone). The characteristics of this service include a universal phone service
while traveling, at a conference, at work, at home, etc.; access to the service
through a single wireless device, i.e., no need to use a plurality of phone devices;
a single access identifier, e.g., phone number; a single personalized service profile:
mailbox, call filters, synchronization with calendar, etc.
This invention is based on the observation that many of the above mentioned
problems with telephony have been solved, within another context, on Internet Protocol
(IP) based networks, Intranets and Internet for data services. There is a standard
IP-based infrastructure all over the world that also scales to the consumer level.
A user can access a single service through a single user interface all over the
world. Moreover, a user can have a single access identifier, email address, with
which he/she can send and receive emails, regardless of his/her geographic location.
Further, a user can have a single service profile, anywhere.
This invention solves the above problems within the context of telephony by
offering the phone service on IP based network with the same service provisioning
concepts and allowing a user to access the service through a single mobile phone
device from all over the world. This requires a gateway to interconnect the mobile
device with the IP-based fixed network. A call from a first phone device to a second
phone device traverses a first gateway to the IP network and a second gateway from
the IP network to the second phone device. A directory server and a profile server
are available on the IP network. An implementation model for such a service uses,
for example, a wireless link between the phone and the gateway, such as provided
by the evolving Bluetooth standard indoors and the evolving UMTS standard outdoors,
or on any other method.
An evolutionary scenario for arriving at a wireless infrastructure is described
below by way of example. The first phase in the evolution scenario is to allow
a user of a wireless phone to access the phone service outside the roaming range
of the respective mobile service. This is typically needed when the user is traveling.
A simple solution is provided by a wireless link access from a mobile phone device
to a gateway on the IP network, and via a multi-call gateway component from the
IP network to a conventional mobile phone service network. In this scenario the
gateway between the phone device and the IP network includes, for example, a PC
with the respective hardware and software functionalities. A business traveler
typically has a PC, which can be equipped with the gateway. Also in this phase,
the wireless access link could be implemented with the outdoors wireless link method
with reduced transmission power for very short distances (few meters). In the next
evolutionary phase, the gateway could be installed in public places most visited
by business travelers, such as airports, hotels, conference facilities, and so
on. In this phase, a universal standard indoors wireless access method, such as
Bluetooth, would be particularly well suited. In subsequent phases, the above gateway
could also be installed at the work place and then at home as well.
Generally, computer communication systems using an IP or similar networking
protocol can be configured to provide data to each connected IP address, independent
of the physical location of the device associated with the IP address. A business
traveler can, for example, access the Internet to retrieve his or her e-mail, regardless
of where the traveler happens to be located. The same computer device and user
interface that the traveler uses in the United States can be used to access the
Internet in Europe. The traveler can use a small laptop or palmtop device to access
e-mail while traveling, and a larger desktop device to access e-mail while at the
office, and a web-TV device to access e-mail at home. Services are available that
allows the same e-mail address to be used regardless of the provider of the Internet
access service. The user interface with the Internet can also be provided independent
of the provider of the Internet access service. The user can configure a browser
or e-mail program to access different service providers, depending upon location,
yet the interface to the browser or e-mail program remains the same. In like manner,
the user's Internet interface can be located at a globally accessible site within
the data network, so that this same interface can be accessed by the user, regardless
of the device used to access the Internet.
The same globally accessible common user interface, and common service profile,
can be provided to telephone users by coupling the telephone instruments typically
used by a user, and in particular, mobile telephone instruments, into a data network
that facilitates such a globally accessible interface. FIG. 1 illustrates an example
block diagram of a gateway device 100 that provides access to a data network,
exemplified by the Internet 10, for at least voice communications. The example
gateway 100 includes a transceiver 110 and a conventional "voice
over IP" (VoIP) application 120 that facilitates voice communications over
an IP data network 10 via an IP access device 140, such as a modem.
In accordance with this invention, the transceiver 110 is configured to
provide access to the VoIP application 120 from a mobile telephone instrument
150. In a preferred embodiment, the transceiver 110, or another transceiver,
also provides access to the VoIP application 120 from a wired telephone
instrument as well. For ease of reference, the term "mobile telephone" is used
herein to refer to conventional cellular or satellite communication systems, and
corresponding telephone instruments that do not, per se, have a "fixed" location.
"Wired telephone", on the other hand, refers to telephone systems that provide
service to fixed locations, typically via wires or cables; wireless telephones
that communicate to such systems via a base station at the fixed location are included
herein as "wired" telephone instruments. Also for ease of reference, a "telephone
instrument" is defined herein as any device or combination of devices that are
capable of transforming voice input into electrical signals and incoming electrical
signals into an audible output.
As is known in the art, a VoIP application 120 transmits and receives telephone
calls using IP addresses. The IP address may be static or dynamic. Some devices
at fixed locations have IP addresses that do not change (static addresses), whereas
devices at other locations (fixed and mobile) have IP addresses that are dynamically
determined when the device accesses the network. Generally, a particular user of
an application, such as VoIP 120 is associated with a unique "application
name", similar to a user of an e-mail application having a unique "e-mail name".
For ease of reference, a user's application name for a VoIP application is herein
referred to as the user's voip-name. When the user accesses the network 10,
an address locator 15 associates the user's voip-name to the particular
IP address corresponding to the IP access device 140. The address locator
15 also associates a unique session identifier corresponding to this voip-name
at this IP address, because the IP access device 140 may have more than
one application concurrently accessing the network 10. As is common in the
art, once an application name is assigned to a particular session identifier and
IP address, other applications are able to determine the assignment, and thereby
communicate with the VoIP application 120.
Conventionally, a VoIP application 120 uses the audio capabilities
of the computer upon which it is running, or a wired telephone instrument 155
that is attached to the computer, to receive and transmit the audio information
from and to the user. The conventional VoIP application provides features to the
user via a user interface 130 that includes, for example, speed-dialing,
voice-directed-dialing, address book, directory of commonly called numbers, and
so on, hereinafter termed a user-profile. As discussed above, a typical VoIP installation
adds yet another "telephone number" (in this case an IP address) to the multitude
of numbers associated with a typical user.
In accordance with this invention, however, the transceiver 110 is configured
to interact with the mobile telephone 150 in the same manner as a cellular
or satellite system interacts with a mobile telephone, thereby providing an access
mode that is "transparent" to the user, and, when adopted by service providers,
will be "transparent" to a person calling the user using the user's mobile telephone
number. The invention is presented hereinafter as a two-phase embodiment of capabilities.
In the first phase, the user is provided access to a data network from a mobile
telephone for initiating telephone calls from the mobile telephone, and for receiving
telephone calls placed to the user's voip-name, via for example, another VoIP application.
In the second phase, public telephone providers route calls placed to a conventional
telephone number to a voip-name corresponding to that telephone number. The first
phase provides a number of advantages to a user, independent of whether or when
the second phase is implemented, as discussed below.
Consider the installation of gateway 100 in a user's office computer
and home computer. In a preferred embodiment, the user-profile is located at a
user-profile page 160 on the data network 10, so that it can be accessed
from either the user's office computer or home computer as required. When the user
is within range of the office computer or the home computer, the mobile phone 150
provides identical features and capabilities to the user, regardless of the particular
location (home or office) of the user. New contact telephone numbers that are added
to the user-profile, for example, are subsequently available to the user at either
location, and the same options are provided to the user at either location. In
a preferred embodiment, the user-profile page may be partitioned by the user into
sub-profiles, to facilitate the organization of the information contained in the
page, yet each sub-profile is available for use from either location, as required.
Consider now the installation of the gateway 100 in a user's portable
computer. Whenever the portable computer is provided access to the data network
10, the user can use the mobile phone 150 to place calls via the
data network 10, using an identical interface, and having access to the
same user-profile, as in the user's home or office. Note that this capability extends
to overseas locations, because, unlike telephone protocols and standards, the IP
protocol is independent of national boundaries. A user traveling to Europe, for
example, can use his or her US-compatible mobile telephone, via an access to the
data network 10 from the user's portable computer.
Note that the user-dependent information in a preferred embodiment is located
on the user-profile page 160, or within the mobile phone 150. Therefore,
the gateway 100 is user-independent, and need not be directly associated
with a particular user. In an office environment, for example, the gateway 100
may be located at a central server, and contain multiple transceivers 110
to service simultaneous users. Such multi-user gateways 100 may also be
located in public areas, such as airports and train or bus stations, hotels, within
trains, buses, and planes, and so on. Whenever a user is within the vicinity of
such a gateway 100, the user will be provided the same interface, and the
same set of user-dependent and user-independent features and options.
To effect this first phase, the mobile telephone 150 is configured to recognize
when it is in the vicinity of a gateway 100. Mobile telephones are currently
available that include a variety of communication capabilities, such as digital
or analog cellular capabilities, local "walkie-talkie" capabilities, and the like.
In phase one of the embodiment of this invention, an additional communication capability
can be added to the mobile telephone 150, and the mobile telephone 150
can be configured to automatically switch to this additional communication whenever
it detects the presence of a gateway 100. The same techniques used to select
a digital mode over analog mode whenever the mobile telephone 150 detects
the presence of a digital-compatible cell in a cellular system can be used to effect
this automatic switch, giving overall selection preference to communications with
the gateway 100. Preferably, the transceiver 110 uses the same communication
protocol as that provided by the cellular or satellite service provider, and automatically
"captures" the mobile phone 150 when a call is initiated in its vicinity.
For example, in a conventional cellular system, the mobile phone 150 initially
issues a channel request. The cell(s) within range of the mobile phone 150
respond with a channel allocation, typically by assigning the mobile phone 150
a particular CDMA code and time-slot allocation. When the mobile phone 150
responds with that CDMA code in the appropriate time-slot, communication is established.
The mobile phone 150 responds to only one cell; cells that do not receive
a response using their allocated CDMA code and time-slot are configured to deallocate
the code and time-slot, for subsequent allocation to another mobile phone 150.
In a preferred embodiment, the transceiver 110 communicates the appropriate
response to the request by the mobile telephone 150, and that response serves
to notify the mobile telephone 150 that it is in the vicinity of the gateway
100. In this preferred embodiment, the initial communication by the mobile
telephone 150 may be, for example, a "send" request without a corresponding
telephone number, that instructs any gateway 100 within its vicinity to respond.
The gateway 100 preferably transmits a periodic pilot signal, to which
the mobile telephone 150 responds, regardless of whether a new call is being
placed. In this manner, the gateway 100 can become aware that a recipient
exists for messages that are addressed to the user's voip-name, and can effect
the appropriate mapping of the voip-name to its IP address, thereby allowing incoming
messages to this voip-name to be received. Note that, in accordance with this invention,
multiple telephone instruments 150, 155, etc. can be assigned the
same user voip-name. Messages addressed to the voip-name will be routed to whichever
instrument 150, 155 "answers first", similar to "rollover" telephone
exchanges, or to conventional e-mail servers.
When communication is commenced by the mobile telephone 150, via the
dedicated communication capability, or via conventional mobile communications on
a channel allocated by the gateway 100, the gateway 100 provides
the features of the user interface 130 to the connected telephone 150,
including the features and data associated with the user-profile page 160,
as discussed above.
FIG. 2 illustrates an example block diagram of a communications system 200
in accordance with the second phase of this invention. In this phase, the public
telephone providers are integrally coupled to the data network 10 via a
multi-user gateway 210. A mobile telephone 150′ is illustrated
in FIG. 2 as being coupled to a mobile telephone service network 20, presumably
being out of range of a local gateway 100. The gateway 210, being
connected to the data network 10, has access to the user-profile page 160.
In accordance with this aspect of the invention, the gateway 210 is configured
to provide the user of the mobile telephone 150′, via the mobile
telephone service network 20, the same interface that the user is provided
when the mobile telephone 150′ is in the vicinity of a local gateway
100. In like manner, the gateway 210 is used to couple the land-based
telephone service network 30 to the data network 10. In this manner,
the user can be provided the same interface when the user uses a wired telephone
155. In a preferred embodiment, particular telephone instruments 155,
or particular locales of telephone instruments, such as the user's home, may be
pre-associated with the user, so that the user is provided immediate access to
the interface and user-dependent information whenever the associated instrument
155 is used. Additionally, a user may dial into the land-based telephone
service network 30, or the mobile telephone service network 20, from
an arbitrary telephone instrument and provide the voip-name, or another identifier
of this user and/or this user's voip-name. Thereafter, the telephone service network
20, 30 provides the user with the user interface associated with
the voip-name, based on the particular user-profile 160.
The configuration of FIG. 2 also allows the telephone service network 20,
30 to route incoming calls to corresponding IP addresses that are associated
with voip-names. Using the same techniques that are commonly used by cellular telephone
providers to locate a particular mobile telephone, and techniques that are commonly
used to determine the presence of a particular user on the Internet, the networks
20, 30 are configured to locate a currently accessible instrument
that is associated with an incoming destination telephone number. This search for
an accessible instrument includes a search of the data network for an instrument
that is associated with the IP address that corresponds to a voip-name associated
with the destination telephone number. The telephone connection is made to the
first instrument that responds to the search request. If a currently accessible
telephone instrument is not located, a "please-leave-a-message" response is provided
to the calling party, preferably based on the user-profile page 160. In
a preferred embodiment, a user may have a personal phone number and a business
phone number, and the user-profile page 160 is configured to provide a different
response message based upon which phone number was called. In a preferred embodiment,
the corresponding voice-mail messages are also stored on the data network 10,
and are thereby accessible by the user from any gateway 100, 210,
or other access device 230.
The foregoing merely illustrates the principles of the invention. It will thus
be appreciated that those skilled in the art will be able to devise various arrangements
which, although not explicitly described or shown herein, embody the principles
of the invention and are thus within the spirit and scope of the following claims.
*
