Patents Assigned to MCI, Inc.
  • Publication number: 20060236394
    Abstract: A mitigation service may be used to mitigate a network attack in a network including a group of mitigation devices. Datagrams, intended for a customer that is subject of a network attack, may be received by at least one of the mitigation devices based on an anycast address associated with the mitigation devices. Each of the mitigation devices is addressable via the anycast address. The received datagrams may be processed to remove malicious datagrams and leave legitimate datagrams. The legitimate datagrams may be forwarded to the customer via a tunnel configured between an address associated with the customer and the anycast address associated with the mitigation devices.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 13, 2005
    Publication date: October 19, 2006
    Applicant: MCI, Inc.
    Inventors: Christopher Morrow, James Gill
  • Publication number: 20060233311
    Abstract: An approach for supporting automated fault isolation and recovery is provided. An alarm indicative of a fault within a customer network is received. An event within a workflow is created in response to the alarm, wherein a new trouble ticket is generated as part of the workflow. Communication with a trouble management system is performed to correlate the alarm with an existing trouble ticket. The new trouble ticket is associated with the existing trouble ticket.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 23, 2005
    Publication date: October 19, 2006
    Applicant: MCI, Inc.
    Inventors: Frank Adams, Sanjiv Damle, Richard Drescher, Joshua Morris, Michael Smith, Stephen Smith, Jonathan Spieker, Christopher White
  • Publication number: 20060219992
    Abstract: A system includes a duct, a pressurized fluid source, and a valve. The duct receives one or more cables and the pressurized fluid source couples to a first end of the duct and produces fluid pressure within the duct. The valve couples to a second end of the duct and is closed for a time to build pressure within the duct, and then opened to permit the fluid under pressure within the duct to escape rapidly from the duct and propel the one or more cables through the duct.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 1, 2005
    Publication date: October 5, 2006
    Applicant: MCI, Inc.
    Inventors: John Fee, Frank McKiel
  • Patent number: 7117191
    Abstract: A system, method and computer program product for processing event records. The present invention includes a detection layer, an analysis layer, an expert systems layer and a presentation layer. The layered system includes a core infrastructure and a configurable, domain-specific implementation. The detection layer employs one or more detection engines, such as a rules-based thresholding engine and a profiling engine. The detection layer can include an Artificial Intelligence based pattern recognition engine for analyzing data records, for detecting new and interesting patterns and for updating the detection engines to insure that the detection engines can detect the new patterns. In one embodiment, the present invention is implemented as a telecommunications fraud detection system. When fraud is detected, the detection layer generates alarms which are sent to the analysis layer. The analysis layer filters and consolidates the alarms to generate fraud cases.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 8, 2003
    Date of Patent: October 3, 2006
    Assignee: MCI, Inc.
    Inventors: John Gavan, Kevin Paul, Jim Richards, Charles A. Dallas, Hans Van Arkel, Cheryl Herrington, Saralyn M. Mahone, Terrill J. Curtis, James J. Wagner
  • Patent number: 7114083
    Abstract: A double firewalled system is disclosed for protecting remote enterprise servers that provide communication services to telecommunication network customers from unauthorized third parties. A first router directs all connection requests to one or more secure web servers, which may utilize a load balancer to efficiently distribute the session connection load among a high number of authorized client users. On the network side of the web servers, a second router directs all connection requests to a dispatcher server, which routes application server calls to a proxy server for the application requested. A plurality of data security protocols are also employed. The protocols provide for an identification of the user, and an authentication of the user to ensure the user is who he/she claims to be and a determination of entitlements that the user may avail themselves of within the enterprise system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 8, 2003
    Date of Patent: September 26, 2006
    Assignee: MCI, Inc.
    Inventors: Carol Y Devine, Gerald A Shifrin, Richard W Shoulberg
  • Patent number: 7110390
    Abstract: Instead of having to subscribe to multiple telephone lines for multiple devices that a user has, a module of the present invention can connect each of the user's devices to an outside communications network using the same telephone line. Such multiple inside connections to the outside communication network using the same telephone line is achieved by provisioning within the invention module the appropriate telephone and computer interface units for the user's telephones and computers, and an appropriate network interface unit for connection to the telephone line that connects the invention module to the external communications network.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 20, 1999
    Date of Patent: September 19, 2006
    Assignee: MCI, Inc.
    Inventor: Kevin Gatesman
  • Patent number: 7106756
    Abstract: A method, system, and computer program product for controlling customer resources for Internet protocol (IP) traffic delivery are disclosed. The network utilization of a group of endpoints on a network is tracked to generate group utilization level information corresponding to a current amount of network resource consumption by the group of endpoints. A request for network resources for a data flow for an endpoint in the group is received from a router associated with that endpoint. The request for network resources includes an identifier associated with the endpoint. A determination is made whether to accept the request based on the group utilization level information, the identifier, and a first predetermined profile associated with the group and including a first network utilization limit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 12, 1999
    Date of Patent: September 12, 2006
    Assignee: MCI, Inc.
    Inventors: Steven Robert Donovan, Diana J. Rawlins, John K. Gallant
  • Publication number: 20060195905
    Abstract: A method for analyzing a network element may include assigning values to each of a plurality of vulnerabilities. The method may also include identifying a vulnerability associated with the network element and generating a risk indicator for the network element based on the assigned value associated with the identified vulnerability.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 19, 2005
    Publication date: August 31, 2006
    Applicant: MCI, Inc.
    Inventor: Robert Fudge
  • Publication number: 20060193446
    Abstract: A system for facilitating 9-1-1 service delivery to internet telephony customers is provided. The system includes a server device for receiving a 9-1-1 call from a user device via a data network, where the 9-1-1 call are based on “9-1-1” digits dialed at the user device. The server device is configured to forward the received 9-1-1 call to an operator services interface operatively connected to the server device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 25, 2005
    Publication date: August 31, 2006
    Applicant: MCI, Inc.
    Inventor: Elizabeth Colunga
  • Patent number: 7099282
    Abstract: Empirically derived models are used to relate user perception to objectively measurable characteristics, under a criterion of nearly perfect co-variance between predicted MOS values and the variations in the values of the objectively measurable characteristics. In the example context of evaluating packet switched telephony service, the present invention eliminates the need to perform subjective tests to characterize each combination of codec type and transmission protocol.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 30, 2001
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2006
    Assignee: MCI, Inc.
    Inventor: William Christopher Hardy
  • Publication number: 20060177038
    Abstract: A system includes a switching device. The switching device is configured to process a call request as a 12-digit telephone number. The 12-digit telephone number includes a 3-digit area code, a 4-digit location independent code, and a 5-digit location dependent code.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 25, 2005
    Publication date: August 10, 2006
    Applicant: MCI, Inc
    Inventor: Chad Horton
  • Publication number: 20060176873
    Abstract: An approach is described for providing shared trunking between a telephony gateway and an end office switch. The telephony gateway processes a packetized voice call, and interfaces a shared trunk to an end office switch (e.g., Class 5 switch) configured to switch calls over a circuit-switched telephone network. The trunk utilizes out-of-band signaling (e.g., Primary Rate Interface (PRI) signaling) in support of call establishment or teardown of the packetized voice call.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 9, 2005
    Publication date: August 10, 2006
    Applicant: MCI, Inc.
    Inventors: Joel Krause, Gary Lockhart, Carl Leonard
  • Publication number: 20060179148
    Abstract: A system includes at least one network device that allows users to establish peering connections between ports in different geographic locations via web-based interfaces.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 9, 2005
    Publication date: August 10, 2006
    Applicant: MCI, Inc.
    Inventors: Craig Sandin, Robin Chung, Adele Newman
  • Publication number: 20060177037
    Abstract: A system includes a switching device. The switching device is configured to process a call request as a 12-digit telephone number in a first situation. The 12-digit telephone number includes an area code and 9 digits after the area code. The switching device is further configured to process the call request as a telephone number including less than 12 digits in a second situation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 25, 2005
    Publication date: August 10, 2006
    Applicant: MCI, Inc.
    Inventor: Chad Horton
  • Patent number: 7088801
    Abstract: A platform provides access to multiple telecommunications services via a single telephone number. These services may include, for example, voicemail services, facsimile messaging services, paging services, and outbound calling services. A guest caller may call the single phone number to speak to a subscriber, leave a voicemail message for a subscriber, leave a facsimile message for a subscriber, or place a page to a subscriber. A subscriber may call the phone number to place outbound calls. In addition, a subscriber may call the single phone number to retrieve or send facsimile messages and/or voicemail messages. A subscriber may also call the phone number to configure service options. For instance, a subscriber may select routing options and choose what services are available to guest callers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 7, 1999
    Date of Patent: August 8, 2006
    Assignee: MCI, Inc.
    Inventors: Karen A. Gross, Thomas J. Galvan, Rupika Chib
  • Publication number: 20060165223
    Abstract: A resource management system for an intelligent communications network having one or more distributed service nodes, each service node for providing services relating to an event received at a network resource associated with a service node. The system comprising a first processing tier comprising one or more local execution environments located at a node, each execution environment including a mechanism for instantiating one or more service objects capable of performing event services at a first local execution environment, and, for generating status information relating to executing service objects; and, a second processing tier associated with a service node and including a system processor for tracking status and availability of service objects and local execution environments.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 15, 2006
    Publication date: July 27, 2006
    Applicant: MCI, Inc.
    Inventors: Andrew Dugan, Allen Holmes, Kelvin Porter, Terence Robb
  • Patent number: 7079635
    Abstract: A method and device for preventing fraud in international calls in a long-distance telecommunications system, where selected customers can avoid fraud control blocks and greater granularity is achieved in blocking international destinations. In the method and device, an override flag is created in the records of the Billing Number Screening (BNS) database. When a call is made using a billing number whose corresponding record has the override flag set, the call is not stopped by fraud control blocks on certain international destinations. In addition, international destinations can be blocked with greater specificity because a Country Set Logic (CSET) field is added to the International City Code Database. The addition of CSET to this database allows particular international city destinations to be blocked from certain origin points.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 16, 2003
    Date of Patent: July 18, 2006
    Assignee: MCI, Inc.
    Inventors: Dean C. Marchand, Arthur Lance Springer
  • Publication number: 20060147026
    Abstract: In recent times, communications service providers have been able to offer large business enterprises the ability to share call center operation among multiple geographically dispersed call centers. In particular, network-resident call handling technologies have been developed for performing some of the handling and queuing of each inbound call within the communications network, that is, before the call is forwarded to an ACD at a particular call center. However, by outsourcing a portion of the call center operations to a network-based call routing system, the call centers are no longer able to maintain direct control over, and are generally unable to directly access information, such as statistics, about the calls in the network or other call centers. Accordingly, an interface is provided that allows an entity to obtain information about calls within the network or other call center(s).
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 8, 2005
    Publication date: July 6, 2006
    Applicant: MCI, Inc.
    Inventors: Steven Statham, Ronald Medo
  • Patent number: 7069337
    Abstract: A data network may include an upstream router having one or more data handling queues, a downstream router, and a policy server. In one embodiment, the policy server includes processing resources, a communication interface in communication with the processing resources, and data storage that stores a configuration manager executable by the processing resources. The configuration manager configures data handling queues of the upstream router to provide a selected bandwidth to one or more of a plurality of service classes of data flows. In addition, the configuration manager transmits to the downstream router one or more virtual pool capacities, each corresponding to a bandwidth at the upstream router for one or more associated service classes among the plurality of service classes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 12, 2002
    Date of Patent: June 27, 2006
    Assignee: MCI, Inc.
    Inventors: Diana Rawlins, Lei Yao, David E. McDysan
  • Publication number: 20060133405
    Abstract: System and method for providing service-agnostic network resources is provided. An embodiment receives an indication that a user is requesting services at a new location, retrieves an access profile, which includes service parameters for services to which the user subscribes, and causes the access network and the programmable network to be reconfigured to provide to the user's services at the new location. The indication may be generated automatically or manually. A network control database that stores network topology information and/or configuration instructions may be used to reconfigure the network resources. In this manner, the access network and the programmable network may be reconfigured to allow the user to move from location to location and from device to device and continue to receive a consistent set of transport services, even involving multiple forms of transport.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 7, 2005
    Publication date: June 22, 2006
    Applicant: MCI, Inc.
    Inventor: John Fee