Abstract: A control resource, such as a service control point, causes a telephone network to route calls, initiated by an explicit request for operator service, to a front-end automation platform. The platform provides an announcement, typically in the form of a menu identifying available services. If the platform receives a signal from a caller selecting one of the services, the platform converts the call from an operator service call to a type of call associated with the selected service. The network then routes the call as converted, through the network to a predetermined resource for providing the selected service. The menu announcement and service selection processing with subsequent call conversion help take as many operator service calls as possible away from the operator switch and instead route many calls directly to the appropriate department, emergency destination or automated resource.

Abstract: A system monitors performance in a network (130) having several routers (210). The system determines a roundtrip path in the network (130) between a source and a destination, identifies routers (210) located on the path, collects performance data from the identified routers (210), and compares the performance data to at least one performance criteria to determine compliance with a service-level guarantee.

Abstract: The systems and methods described herein include a platform that employs a client/server architecture to provide an extensible set of real time and messaging communication services to a plurality of users. The platform allows the clients to configure and activate the services as each user wishes, thereby providing individual control over the communication services a user receives. The platform includes a server that allows a user to select how the user will participate in a communications event. This can include control over the end points and media over which the communications event occurs. The systems described herein additionally provide a framework for developing integrated voice and data services that can be deployed on the platform for extending the services available to the plurality of clients.

Abstract: Methods and systems consistent with the present invention provide a unified messaging system. The unified messaging system comprises a unified messaging system server and clients, such as personal computers, telephones, facsimile machines, and two-way paging machines connected via both land based and wireless connections. This system enables a user to access and retrieve a variety of messages, including voice mail messages, facsimiles, and electronic mail messages via a unified user interface that clearly distinguishes each message type using message identifiers, and segregates messages by type.

Abstract: Offering vertical services to subscribers and service providers is an avenue to immediately improve the competitiveness of digital subscriber line access service, for example of the type offered by a local exchange carrier. To deliver high-quality vertical services, however, the underlying ADSL Data Network (ADN) or the like needs to establish Quality of Service (QoS) as a core characteristic and offer an efficient mechanism for insertion of the vertical services. The inventive network architecture introduces QoS into the ADN, in a manner that enables the delivery of sophisticated and demanding IP-based services to subscribers, does not affect existing Internet tiers of service, and is cost-effective in terms of initial costs, build-out, and ongoing operations.

Abstract: The disclosure is directed toward a Multi-Occupancy Dwelling (MOD) telephone jack for use where different telephone connections could be reconfigured without the need for a telephone technician. In the description herein, the term “jack” is used to describe a receptacle, whereas in the industry, a combination of a receptacle and a plug is sometimes called a jack. The MOD jack is similar to the regulation jack (RJ), or it could be a different connection point. The MOD jack has a plurality of selectable connecting points. The MOD jack includes a rotary dial. The rotary dial is connected to at least one connection point on a first plate and further a plurality of connection points on a second plate. The first plate is connected to a plurality of connection points.

Abstract: Aggregating physical connections from customers for presentation to an access router and de-aggregating traffic from a shared link(s) from the access router. Ports of an aggregation unit may be configured such that each has a unique identifier in the place of information (e.g., the layer 2 address) originally in the layer 2 header. The layer 2 (e.g., MAC) address of the customer device connected with the port can be associated with, and therefore determined from, the IP address of the attached device. When a packet is received from a customer, information in the layer 2 header is changed to a unique identifier assigned to a logical port or interface associated with the physical port. When a packet is received from the access router, it is placed on the port assigned to the logical port associated with the destination layer 2 address (or associated with other bits of the unique bit string and at least some of those bits are replaced with the destination layer 2 address of the device associated with the port.

Abstract: Establishing a conference between a customer at a customer terminal and a live agent at an agent station, by (a) accepting a call request from the customer terminal, (b) requesting that an available live agent take the call request, (c) when a live agent becomes available to take the call request, passing customer information to the agent station associated with the available live agent, and (d) establishing a conference from the agent station associated with the available live agent to the customer terminal. The conference may be an audio-video conference. The audio-video conference may be compliant with the H.323 standard. The call request may generated in response to an event sensed by an API which was previously downloaded to the customer terminal from a web server. The call request may be generated in response to a trigger event.

Abstract: A method is provided for estimating a number of digital subscriber line nodes (220, 230) required to supply, from a line supply source (200), a geographically distributed network of substantially sequentially numbered twisted pair lines with digital subscriber line service. The method comprises the steps of: storing, in number order, data entries for every twisted pair line of the network, each data entry comprising a pair number and a line length of the respective twisted pair line in relation to the line supply source (200); sorting the entries stored in the database by line length; isolating those sorted entries whose twisted pair lines have a line length greater than a predetermined maximum line length in relation to the line supply source (200); sorting the isolated entries by number; and discriminating, from the sorted isolated entries, the presence of discrete groupings of substantially contiguous entries.

Abstract: A system facilitates configuration of at least one of multiple network devices (130) of different types. The system includes a configuration database (310), a policies database (320), a configuration generator (330), and a protocol engine (340). The configuration database (310) stores data that defines a configuration for the network device (130). The policies database (320) stores rules for configuring the network device (130). The configuration generator (330) generates a deployable configuration from the data in the configuration database (310) and the rules in the policies database (320). The protocol engine (340) deploys the deployable configuration to the network device (130).

Abstract: Methods and apparatus for providing a monitoring service using a speakerphone and monitoring device coupled by a telephone line are described. A call is placed to the monitoring device and the speakerphone is then left off the hook. The monitoring device records received sounds and monitors for signals indicating an attempt to place a call. If DTMF tones corresponding to a phone number are received, the monitoring device initiates a call to the received phone number and bridges the initiated call with the call from the speakerphone. A call can be placed to the monitoring device to access recordings of audio from the speakerphone, monitor sounds from the speakerphone in real time and/or select stories, music or messages to be supplied by the monitoring device to the speakerphone at times specified by the caller.

Abstract: Disclosed is a method and device for selecting documents, such as Web pages or sites, for presentation to a user, in response to a user expression of interest, during the course of presentation to the user of a document, such as a video or audio selection, whose content varies with time. The method takes advantage of information retrieval techniques to select documents related to the portion of the temporal document in which the user has expressed interest. The method generates the search query to use to select documents by reference to text associated with the portion of the temporal document in which the user has expressed interest, as by using the closed caption test associated with the video, or by using speech recognition techniques.

Abstract: A method and system for controlling congestion in an ATM network comprises the steps of pre-allocating, for a pre-determined interval of time, a set of burst access parameters to a set of pre-allocated virtual paths between a set of source node and destination node pairs in the ATM network, and controlling, at the burst level, the traffic at each source node based on the pre-allocated set of burst access parameters and without communicating with other nodes in the ATM network. Specifically, the network, for a pre-determined interval of time, pre-allocates a set of virtual paths between each source-destination node pair in the network, pre-allocates a set of maximum permitted rates to the pre-allocated set of virtual paths, respectively, and pre-assigns a set of burst access thresholds to a set of service classes, respectively, in the pre-allocated virtual paths, where the pre-assigned burst access thresholds are less than or equal to the corresponding pre-allocated maximum permitted rates.

Abstract: Operations relating to objects in a window [301] are automatically included in the window based on the capabilities of the window and based on the resources required to implement the operations. The operations are stored in an operations repository [303]. An operations manager component [302] interfaces the windows [301] and the operations repository [303]. The operations may be operations related to elements of a telecommunications network and may be made available to the end-user by automatically adding buttons to menus in the window that invoke the operations.

Abstract: A video conferencing system (100) includes a switch (125), a server (140), a telephone device (152), and a node (102) in a packet-switched network (135). The switch (125) establishes a circuit-switched connection between a calling party number and a called party number. The server (140) associates first and second network addresses in a packet-switched network (135) with each of the called party and calling party numbers. The telephone device (152) transmits audio data via the circuit-switched connection. The node (102) in the packet-switched network (135) transmits packetized video between the first and second network addresses responsive to establishment of the circuit-switched connection.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus for implementing communication services such as voice dialing services are described. In one Centrex based voice dialing embodiment, voice dialing service subscribers are given access to personal voice dialing records including calling entries via the Internet as well as via telephone connections. Each calling entry normally includes the name and, optionally nickname, of a party to be called. It also includes one or more telephone numbers associated with each name. Different telephone number identifies, e.g. locations, can be associated with different names. A user can create or update entries in a voice dialing directory using text conveyed over the Internet or speech supplied via a telephone connection. In order to facilitate updating and maintenance of voice dialing directories over the Internet speaker independent (SI) speech recognition models are used.

Abstract: A system monitors performance in a network that includes several network resources. The system obtains a list of targets in the network. The targets include selected ones of the resources. The system sends a request to the targets, receives responses from the targets, and determines a status of the targets based on the received responses or a lack of responses from the targets. The system then analyzes the status of the targets to determine compliance with the service-level guarantee.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus for providing speech recognition capability to callers in a cost efficient manner as part of one or more telephone services are described. Multiple speech recognition units with differing capabilities and therefore implementation costs are provided. Calls are assigned to speech recognition circuits throughout a call based on a signal such as a service type identifier indicating the type of service to be provided to the caller. During different phases of a call different speech recognition units may be used. In addition, different amounts of speech recognition processing capability may be allocated to service a call at different points during a call. In this manner efficient use of available speech recognition resources can be achieved.

Abstract: A total aggregation plan (TAP) provides a plurality of data services to a Network Service Provider (NSP). The present invention encourages the NSP to use more than one type of telecommunications service to connect to its end-users (subscribers) by requiring that the NSP choose a specified number of data services that are available from the telephone company under the plan. The NSP is then required to sustain an annualized billing of greater than a specified amount and maintain at least a specified percentage of billing allocations to each one of the data services chosen. If the NSP does comply in this manner, then a billing credit is provided to the NSP based on the billing history.

Abstract: Systems and methods consistent with the present invention perform message parsing in a distributed component-based network management system using a parsing knowledge structure called a Message Class Grammar (MCG) containing the set of all potential pre-calculated parsing sequences for an active network element. The MCG may be customized to the messages of different active network elements. A universal parsing procedure (UPP) may be used to traverse the hierarchy structure of the MCG. Tracing the MCG hierarchy from the root node along class-subclass arcs until a terminal node is reached determines the parsing sequence for a particular message. The MCG may be developed with a text editor or with a graphical user interface that enables a non-programmer to edit the parser structure.