Patents by Inventor Mark Ratcliffe

Mark Ratcliffe has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 5983217
    Abstract: The apparatus and method of the present invention provides even loadsharing of round-robin querying of replicated databases in a network architecture which responds to network conditions. The network architecture utilizes a round-robin routing table that includes correlated index numbers, point codes and addresses of the replicated databases. The network architecture responds to incoming queries with searching of the round-robin routing table by incrementing to a successor index number and an associated point code. The network architecture may further determine whether the database at the address pointed by the point code is accessible. If not, the network architecture increments to another successor index number to locate an accessible database. When an accessible database is found, the point code is set to the address of the accessible database and the query is forwarded to that address.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 21, 1997
    Date of Patent: November 9, 1999
    Assignee: AT&T Corp
    Inventors: Bahman Khosravi-Sichani, Donald Jay Mintz, Mark A. Ratcliffe
  • Patent number: 5915013
    Abstract: A method and system for processing a call in a telecommunications network comprising a signalling system interconnecting a switch, a segmentation directory and at least one service processor for processing a call associated with a particular service or feature provided by the telecommunications network. The switch receives the call and information associated with the call and transmits a first query message to the segmentation directory. The segmentation directory determines whether the call requires processing by a service processor, and if so, identifies a service processor capable of processing the call.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 4, 1997
    Date of Patent: June 22, 1999
    Assignee: AT&T Corp
    Inventors: Donald Jay Mintz, Mark A. Ratcliffe
  • Patent number: 5864563
    Abstract: In order to test provisioned data and functionality of a network, the operations personnel input data via an operations interface to an originating network element. The originating network element constructs a test query based on the data and selects a receiving network element to be tested. When the originating network element sends the test query to the receiving network element, the test query is processed as if it is a normal network query. A response to the test query is returned to the originating network element and reported to the operations personnel. The reported response contains not only the test results of the provisioned data in the receiving network element but also the routing functionality of the network.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 15, 1996
    Date of Patent: January 26, 1999
    Assignee: AT&T Corp
    Inventor: Mark A. Ratcliffe