Patents Represented by Attorney, Agent or Law Firm Kevin D. Robb
  • Patent number: 6529514
    Abstract: The invention is a system for modifying the VPI/VCIs in ATM cells transferred between two ATM systems on a call-by-call basis. A signaling processor receives signaling for the call and selects a new VPI/VCI for the call. The signaling processor generates a control message that identifies the old and new VPI/VCIs and transfers the control message to an ATM gateway. The ATM gateway modifies the old VPI/VCI in the ATM cells to the new VPI/VCI.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 9, 1999
    Date of Patent: March 4, 2003
    Assignee: Sprint Communications Company L.P.
    Inventors: Joseph Michael Christie, Albert Daniel Duree, Michael Joseph Gardner, Tracy Nelson, William Lyle Wiley
  • Patent number: 6529595
    Abstract: A second network such as an interexchange carrier advantageously identifies incorrect original number portability data from the first network such as a local telephone company and obtains new number portability data to prevent misrouted calls. The second network receives original number portability data from the first network. The second network determines whether to use the original number portability data from the first network for call routing. If the original number portability data from the first network is not used for call routing, the second network generates and transmits a query to obtain new number portability data for call routing. The second network receives the new number portability data for call routing in response to the query. The second network then generates and transmits a route instruction using the new number portability data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 1, 1999
    Date of Patent: March 4, 2003
    Assignee: Sprint Communications Company, L.P.
    Inventors: Khalid M. Medhat, Jason Torrey
  • Patent number: 6522741
    Abstract: According to the invention, a method and apparatus are disclosed for hybrid network call delivery routing using a serving switching element point code and temporary destination location number. Using a hybrid system as taught by the present invention, existing communications network can be migrated to advantageously use point code call routing. Moreover, the disclosed hybrid methodology does not require end-to-end use of point code routing. Rather, a provider's network can transition the heavily trafficked network elements to reduce overhead and costs, while less heavily used network elements can continue to use destination phone number routing or be changed to support point code routing when the cost of its migration is justified.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 26, 1999
    Date of Patent: February 18, 2003
    Assignee: Sprint Communications Company, L.P.
    Inventor: Steven Michael Crowl
  • Patent number: 6522733
    Abstract: A service control system grants or denies a user's request for a communication session to a communications system. The service control system receives the request. The service control system processes the request to determine the service availability level for the time period for the user. The service control system determines whether to grant the communication based on the service availability level for the time period and the communication system performance. The service control system transfers a reply based on the determination of whether to grant the request for the communication session.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 20, 2001
    Date of Patent: February 18, 2003
    Assignee: Sprint Communications Company, L.P.
    Inventor: Fred S. Cook
  • Patent number: 6522876
    Abstract: A service management system based on customized profile management codes. In an advanced intelligent network, a central control point includes a set of logic that defines profile management codes customized for individual subscribers or groups of subscribers. When the central control point receives a profile management code for a particular subscriber, for instance, the central control point may interpret the profile management code altogether differently than it does for the same code from another subscriber. For instance, the logic in a single central control point may indicate for one subscriber that the code “11” means to “activate call forwarding,” and the logic may indicate for another subscriber that the code “11” means to “bill the call to a specified third party account.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 4, 1999
    Date of Patent: February 18, 2003
    Assignee: Sprint Spectrum L.P.
    Inventors: Dorene G. Weiland, Von K. McConnell
  • Patent number: 6512817
    Abstract: The present invention discloses a method for reducing battery power consumed by an integrated services hub supporting a plurality of telephone lines. The status of power to the integrated services hub is monitored, and upon detecting a failure of primary power, each of the telephone lines is polled to detect an off-hook condition. The status of power to the integrated services hub is monitored while polling, and the polling is stopped upon detecting a return of primary power to the integrated services hub or upon detecting an off-hook condition in one of the telephone lines. Polling is performed by placing one of the telephone lines in a standby state and the remaining telephone lines in a disabled state and monitoring the telephone line in standby state for a predetermined amount of time to detect an off-hook condition.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 31, 2000
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2003
    Assignee: Sprint Communications Company, LP
    Inventors: Allan D. Dale, Earl Goodrich, II, Craig Lyle Mahaney
  • Patent number: 6504963
    Abstract: An optical fiber protection switch that performs automatic protection switching. The optical fiber protection switch performs span and ring switching at the optical layer, thereby negating the need for SONET ADMs to perform the switching at the SONET layer. The optical fiber protection switch includes span switches and ring switches arranged to provide span and ring switching, respectively. The span switches and ring switches are implemented using 2×2 optical switches, for a total of eight 2×2 optical switches in the optical fiber protection switch. The system described herein may utilize SONET terminals and/or ATM switches in a WDM environment to support capacity increases while providing the ring and span switching functionality. A network switching element providing transparent, self-healing optical 4-fiber BLSR (OBLSR/4) is realized by using the optical fiber protection switch described herein.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 7, 1998
    Date of Patent: January 7, 2003
    Assignee: Sprint Communications Company L.P.
    Inventors: Xiaojun Fang, Li-Ping Chen, Boris Faer
  • Patent number: 6505161
    Abstract: A system and method for customizing the operating characteristics of a speech recognition system with characteristics of a user device. The user device transmits information representing the operating characteristics of itself to the speech recognition system. The speech recognition system determines the speech characteristics of the user device from this information. The speech recognition system obtains the speech characteristics relating to the device from a database and configures the speech recognition system with these characteristics.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 1, 2000
    Date of Patent: January 7, 2003
    Assignee: Sprint Communications Company L.P.
    Inventor: Douglas J. Brems
  • Patent number: 6504820
    Abstract: A method and system for Connection Admission Control (CAC) in a communications network, such as an ATM formatted B-ISDN network, is provided. Using end-to-end virtual path structures and class-of-service separation, various network virtual connections may be administered using a connection server based on a weighted round robin or similar connection-serving algorithm. Network users aware of the network structure and the means by which queue lengths are determined may easily calculate a Sustainable Cell Rate (SCR) for the traffic they wish to introduce into the network path for transmission to a given destination. The user declared SCR, in addition to other user declared traffic parameters, determines the queue lengths allocated in the network switches, such that a required level of Quality of Service is maintained.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 22, 2002
    Date of Patent: January 7, 2003
    Assignee: Sprint Communications Company L.P.
    Inventor: Stephen Arthur Oliva
  • Patent number: 6501759
    Abstract: The invention is a system for providing virtual connections through an ATM interworking multiplexer on a call-by-call basis. A signaling processor receives signaling for a call and selects the virtual connection for the call. The signaling processor generates control messages that identify the selection and transfers the control messages to the ATM interworking multiplexer that accepted the access connection for the call. The multiplexer converts user information from the access connection into ATM cells for transmission over the virtual connection in accord with the control messages.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 4, 2000
    Date of Patent: December 31, 2002
    Assignee: Sprint Communications Company L.P.
    Inventors: Joseph Michael Christie, Michael Joseph Gardner, Albert Daniel DuRee, William Lyle Wiley
  • Patent number: 6496512
    Abstract: A system and method for connecting a call includes a signaling processor adapted to receive and process call signaling to select connections for a call. The signaling processor transmits control messages designating the selected connections. A controllable time division multiplex matrix receives control messages from the signaling processor and, in response to the control messages, makes connections for the call. The system and method may include an interworking unit that receives control messages from the signaling processor and, in response to the control messages, interworks the calls to selected connections. The system and method may include an asynchronous transfer mode matrix that receives control messages from the signaling processor and, in response to the control messages, connects the calls to selected connections.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 1998
    Date of Patent: December 17, 2002
    Assignee: Sprint Communications Company L.P.
    Inventor: Khalid Mohamed Medhat
  • Patent number: 6490273
    Abstract: The invention comprises a series of architectures that are implemented in four phases to provide a migration path from an initial ATM service offering to a full service ATM network. The initial ATM network includes several metropolitan ATM networks that are interconnected by a core ATM network. Each metropolitan ATM network includes a service node that controls ATM network elements to deliver services. In Phase I, a business hub that is connected to the metropolitan ATM network integrates voice, data, and Internet traffic over a single ATM connection that contains permanent Virtual Connections (PVCs) to various destinations, such as other business hubs, a gateway to local and long distance networks, the Internet, a frame relay network. In Phase II, the architecture is extended to smaller business markets. Businesses are provided with the PVC-based ATM service using xDSL/ATM connections that are multiplexed at a central office and then provided to the service node over the metropolitan ATM network.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 5, 1998
    Date of Patent: December 3, 2002
    Assignee: Sprint Communications Company L.P.
    Inventors: Frank Anthony DeNap, Harold Wayne Johnson, Bryan Lee Gorman, William Lee Edwards, Michael Thomas Swink, Timothy Gene Kelley, James William Baumgart, Martin Joseph Kaplan, Abdullah Murat Bog, John Arndt Strand, III
  • Patent number: 6483837
    Abstract: An interworking system and method connects calls through the use of an asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) switch and interworking units. The ATM switch and interworking units may either be controlled by a signaling processor or not controlled by the signaling processor for particular calls to make connections. In some instances the signaling processor processes call signaling to determine connections for calls and transports control messages to the ATM switch and the interworking unit identifying the connections. The interworking unit interworks user communications from time division multiplex (TDM) formats to ATM for the selected ATM connections, and the ATM switch cross connects the user communications for the other selected ATM connections. In other instances, either of the ATM switch or the interworking unit may automatically cross connect or interwork the user connections to a connection without receiving a control message from the signaling processor that identifies the connection.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 20, 1998
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2002
    Assignee: Sprint Communications Company L.P.
    Inventors: Royal Dean Howell, William Lyle Wiley
  • Patent number: 6483834
    Abstract: A system for creating a switched virtual circuit that includes a switch that receives initial information and a connection management system that is electrically connected to the switch, wherein the switch sends a signal to the connection management system that contains information as to the proper connection for the initial information and wherein the connection management system creates a virtual circuit that will reconfigure and transmit the initial information in such a manner that no information is lost when the initial information is transmitted by the virtual circuit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 10, 1998
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2002
    Assignee: Sprint Communications Company L.P.
    Inventor: Bruce Fredrick Salisbury
  • Patent number: 6483909
    Abstract: A prepaid service assurance system provides service assurance for a prepaid telecommunication system by generating a call to the prepaid telecommunication system. In response to the call, the prepaid service assurance system then receives an actual response from the prepaid telecommunication system and automatically compares the actual response with an expected response for the prepaid telecommunication system. In other embodiments, the prepaid service assurance system determines whether a modification action is needed based on the comparison of the actual response and the expected response. If the modification action is needed, the prepaid service assurance system identifies the modification action based on the determination that the modification is needed. Once the modification action is identified, the prepaid service assurance system transmits an instruction to provide the modification action for the prepaid telecommunication system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 11, 2002
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2002
    Assignee: Sprint Communications Company L.P.
    Inventors: Minh Duy Khuc, Carl Milton Coppage
  • Patent number: 6483823
    Abstract: A CDMA cellular/PCS telecommunications cell of increased capacity includes a plurality of sectors controlled by a base station unit using a defined set of CDMA codes for each sector. Capacity is increased by adding a second base station unit operating at a different, non-interfering frequency.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 16, 1999
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2002
    Assignee: Sprint Communications Company L.P.
    Inventor: Nagi A. Mansour
  • Patent number: 6480493
    Abstract: The invention includes a system for processing telecommunications signaling. Signaling for a call is received into a signaling processor. The signaling processor processes the call and generates new signaling incorporating the processing. The new signaling is transferred to network elements as appropriate. The signaling processor is not coupled to a switch matrix and only communicates with the network elements over signaling links.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 25, 1999
    Date of Patent: November 12, 2002
    Assignee: Sprint Communications Company L.P.
    Inventors: Joseph Michael Christie, Bobby Chand Bahl, Albert Daniel Duree, Michael Joseph Gardner, Daniel Charles Sbisa, William Lyle Wiley
  • Patent number: 6473429
    Abstract: The invention is a system for providing virtual connections through an ATM interworking multiplexer on a call-by-call basis. A signaling processor receives signaling for a call and selects the virtual connection for the call. The signaling processor generates new signaling that identifies the selection and transfers the new signaling to the ATM interworking multiplexer that accepted the access connection for the call. The multiplexer converts user information from the access connection into ATM cells for transmission over the virtual connection in accord with the new signaling.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 15, 1999
    Date of Patent: October 29, 2002
    Assignee: Sprint Communications Company L.P.
    Inventor: Joseph Michael Christie
  • Patent number: 6473505
    Abstract: The invention provides a call processing system to handle calls to a call center by obtaining absolute address for a call center resource from a call center resource processor prior to directing the call to the call center resource. The invention includes a call processing system that receives an initial signal, processes the initial signal to identify a call center resource processor, generates the address query for a call center resource processor, and transmits the address query from the call processing system. Once an address response from the call center resource processor including an absolute address for the call is received, the call processing system generates an instruction to cause a network element system to route the call to a call center resource with the absolute address. At the call center resource, no translation of the call is needed to direct the call to the call's final destination, an agent, interactive voice response, or voice response unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 27, 1999
    Date of Patent: October 29, 2002
    Assignee: Sprint Communications Company L.P.
    Inventors: Minh Duy Khuc, Carl Milton Coppage, Bryce Alan Jones
  • Patent number: 6470081
    Abstract: A Service Control Point (SCP) directs a telecommunications network to connect a resource only when the resource is needed. When the resource is no longer needed, the SCP selects a new connection for the network. The SCP directs the network to disconnect the resource and use the new connection so the resource does not remain on the line during the entire call. The invention can be used to add and drop multiple resources from a call while the call is in progress. The SCP also provides context information for the call so multiple resources can access context information for the call.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 21, 1998
    Date of Patent: October 22, 2002
    Assignee: Sprint Communications Company L.P.
    Inventors: Daniel Charles Sbisa, Shigeru Uchiyama, Karen Harden Miller, Bruce Fredrick Salisbury, James David Setter, Steven Eugene Norby