Patents Assigned to Communication Networks, Inc.
  • Patent number: 6731993
    Abstract: Techniques for validating an audio configuration of a computer are provided. Validation tests are performed on the audio configuration and results from the tests are displayed to a user as a report. The report can include an indication of the audio configuration settings that will adversely affect the audio quality for such uses as computer telephony. Additionally, the report can indicate a recommendation on changing the audio configuration to improve audio quality and can assist the user in making the audio configuration change.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 16, 2000
    Date of Patent: May 4, 2004
    Assignee: Siemens Information & Communication Networks, Inc.
    Inventors: George E. Carter, Shmuel Shaffer, William J. Beyda
  • Patent number: 6731734
    Abstract: A multipoint control unit (104) is provided which allows for dynamic codec selection. According to one embodiment, the MCU (104) causes endpoints (102, 106) to renegotiate their codec selections if a most-commonly available codec is not being used, upon entry of new parties to a teleconference. Alternatively, the codec renegotiation may be performed each time a user speaks, to optimize for maximum transmission quality or for minimizing transcoding.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 19, 1999
    Date of Patent: May 4, 2004
    Assignee: Siemens Information & Communication Networks, Inc.
    Inventors: Shmuel Shaffer, William Joseph Beyda
  • Patent number: 6728339
    Abstract: In an enhanced 911 (E911) response system, a callback monitor including a microphone and a speaker is connected to a telephone. When a caller dials 911 from the telephone, upon the telephone going on-hook, the callback monitor is activated to allow a 911 operator who calls back to detect sounds from the location of the caller's telephone without that phone ringing or being taken off hook. The callback monitor includes a timer; when the timer expires, the monitoring ends. In alternative embodiments, the timer can be extended.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 16, 2002
    Date of Patent: April 27, 2004
    Assignee: Siemens Information and Communication Networks, Inc.
    Inventors: Dennis L. Kucmerowski, David Vander Meiden
  • Patent number: 6728369
    Abstract: A method and device for decoding a sequence of signals in which information is derived, in part, from a duration of (a) one of the signals and/or (b) an inter-signal pause between two of the signals. The method and device may also be used to decode a signal to form decoded information, derived, in part, from a duration of the signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 12, 1999
    Date of Patent: April 27, 2004
    Assignee: Siemens Information & Communication Networks, Inc.
    Inventor: Scott Burgess
  • Patent number: 6728771
    Abstract: Generic transport option invoked by a system administrator module (104) which defines what data type to send, the destination to which the data should be sent, the dissemination method, the mode of transport, the schedule, and which transport facility to be used. When the generic transport option has been invoked, the server (102) acknowledges the control command and proceeds to set up the appropriate connection (101), prepares a predetermined portion of a data container (400) with control header information (402), retrieves the proper data, and packs the data into the transport container (404). Further, confirmation is provided for each container sent that the message was received successfully.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 20, 1998
    Date of Patent: April 27, 2004
    Assignee: Siemens Information and Communication Networks, Inc.
    Inventor: Peggy M. Stumer
  • Patent number: 6728305
    Abstract: A CDMA radio receiver includes a plurality of reception fingers for effecting a dispreading of a received signal with a plurality of spread codes to derive received data. The receiver includes a plural code generator for simultaneously generating and supplying spread codes to the plurality of reception fingers, and a controller for designating a plurality of spread codes which are to be generated and supplied to the plural code series generator and for specifying to which finger they are to be supplied. The plural code series generator includes a shift register having a plurality of shift stages in which a first initial value is loaded by the controller and adapted to be subject to a shift operation in synchronism with a clock.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 21, 2002
    Date of Patent: April 27, 2004
    Assignee: NTT Mobile Communications Network, Inc.
    Inventors: Shinsuke Ogawa, Hirofumi Takagi, Akihiro Higashi
  • Patent number: 6728322
    Abstract: A sequential decoder for use in broadband mobile communications and a receiver including the sequential decoder. The sequential decoder computes likelihood values by referring to histories of paths to reduce the required computational effort. The paths include signal points having small tap coefficient values in an equalizer with a transversal filter, and may also include paths within a constraint length which are old in time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 4, 2000
    Date of Patent: April 27, 2004
    Assignee: NTT Mobile Communications Network, Inc.
    Inventors: Takahiro Asai, Tadashi Matsumoto
  • Patent number: 6728221
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus and computer system for efficiently utilizing a conference bridge capacity in order to support a multipoint conference call are described. Each conference bridge within multiple communication groups determines which local communication unit is a dominant local communication unit, quantizes that dominant local communication unit's signal, and transmits the quantized signal of the dominant local communication unit via signaling channels to the other conference bridges. Each conference bridge then compares the various quantized signals of the various dominant local communication units to determine an overall dominant communication unit of the multipoint conference. Then the signal of the overall dominant communication unit is then transmitted to all communication units participating in the conference call in various ways for different embodiments of the invention.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 9, 1999
    Date of Patent: April 27, 2004
    Assignee: Siemens Information & Communication Networks, Inc.
    Inventors: Shmuel Shaffer, William J. Beyda
  • Patent number: 6724806
    Abstract: A transmission method for implementing variable rate transmission. Part of the baseband processing of a transmitter based on a CDMA transmission scheme is described. A transmitted information sequence in the form of a digital signal is phase modulated by a phase modulator 105. An orthogonal code generator 101 selects, in response to rate information of the transmitted signal, the orthogonal code to be generated. The bit rate of the orthogonal code the orthogonal code generator 101 generates is double the maximum transmission rate. The modulated transmitted signal is multiplied by the orthogonal code corresponding to the rate information with a multiplier 103. The transmitted signal, which is multiplied by the orthogonal code corresponding to the rate information, is further multiplied by a spreading code sequence with a multiplier 104 to be spread into a CDMA signal, and is transmitted under power transmission control based on the rate information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 15, 1999
    Date of Patent: April 20, 2004
    Assignee: NTT Mobile Communications Network, Inc.
    Inventors: Yukihiko Okumura, Fumiyuki Adachi
  • Patent number: 6724860
    Abstract: The invention is directed to methods for accurate transmission of ELIN/callback number from an emergency caller calling from behind a PBX/MLTS include assigning a port equipment number to each device/trunk of the PBX/MLTS and associating ports/devices with ELINs and callback numbers. The apparatus of the invention detects an emergency number, assigns the call priority, and uses the port/device number to determine the ELIN/callback number and properly transmit the ELIN/callback number optionally first over a private network and to the public network PSAP.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 23, 2001
    Date of Patent: April 20, 2004
    Assignee: Siemens Information and Communication Networks, Inc.
    Inventors: Peggy M. Stumer, Nissim Ozery, Jorge Waimin Siu, Heinz Schmitt
  • Patent number: 6724877
    Abstract: A telecommunications server (12) includes a timed recall request unit (202) coupled to a timer (200). The timed recall request unit (202) interfaces to the call park service (100) and/or the call hold service (101). When a request for a call park or call hold is made, the user is given the option of electing timed recall or no recall. If a timed recall is desired, the timed recall request unit (202) is accessed to permit the user to either accept a default length of time or to input a desired length of time. If the user manually retrieves the held or parked call prior to expiration of the timer, the timer (200) is reset.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 11, 1999
    Date of Patent: April 20, 2004
    Assignee: Siemens Information and Communication Networks, Inc.
    Inventors: Dennis L. Kucmerowski, David A. Vander Meiden, Richard Frank
  • Patent number: 6721399
    Abstract: Apparatus and systems for recording Call ID data and transmitting the Caller ID data to remote telecommunications devices on demand, to fully or partially automate the dialing process for remotely calling back a message sender.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 15, 2000
    Date of Patent: April 13, 2004
    Assignee: Siemens Information & Communication Networks, Inc.
    Inventor: William J. Beyda
  • Patent number: 6717959
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus for automatically configuring Call Appearance values in an ISDN BRI include providing means for one PDN to call the other PDN in the same BRI, recording the Call Appearance data for the first call, placing the first call on hold and calling the same number again, recording the Call Appearance data for the second call, and repeating the process until all Call Appearance values have been recorded. According to the invention, the process is repeated for both PDNs in each BRI coupled to customer equipment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 28, 2000
    Date of Patent: April 6, 2004
    Assignee: Siemens Information and Communication Networks, Inc.
    Inventors: Bertram Geck, Francisco Olympio Marcon da Rocha
  • Patent number: 6714908
    Abstract: A speech decoder 10 comprises a decoding processing portion 11 and an amplification process control portion 12. Here, the decoding processing potion 11 is a device for decoding a received coded speech signal (bitstream) BS and outputting a decoded speech signal SP. Additionally, the amplification process control portion 12 monitors the state of occurrence of frame errors in the coded speech signal BS, and when the number of successive frame errors exceeds a predetermined reference frame error number, outputs amplification instructions for a predetermined number of frames after the successive frame errors disappear. As a result, instead of codebook data DCB obtained by a decoding process of the decoding processing portion 11, amplified codebook data DACB are supplied to a synthesis filter portion 17, and is written into the codebook decoder 18 of the decoding processing portion 11 as new original codebook data DCBO.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 29, 1999
    Date of Patent: March 30, 2004
    Assignee: NTT Mobile Communications Network, Inc.
    Inventor: Nobuhiko Naka
  • Patent number: 6714643
    Abstract: A system and method for predicting the wait time of a caller to a call center is disclosed. The call center associates a set of agents to which the caller may be queued. This set of agents selected may depend on the skills that each agent possesses, the type of service request made by the caller, caller priority, time of day, day of week and other conditions. An initial wait time estimate may then be given to the caller who is just queued. As a caller's conditions may dynamically change, a caller's position in the queue may also change as well as the pool of available agents. Periodic wait time estimate updates may also be given to the queued caller. A caller's wait time may be estimated based upon mean inter-arrival times for recently past calls into the call center. An average inter-arrival time may be calculated for the last several calls. Alternatively, a caller's wait time may be estimated based upon calls that are recently queued and dequeued.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 24, 2000
    Date of Patent: March 30, 2004
    Assignee: Siemens Information & Communication Networks, Inc.
    Inventors: Padma R. Gargeya, Charles M. White, Stuart Dufour
  • Patent number: 6707827
    Abstract: To improve the quality of audio signals transmitted over a computer network, a source computer (12) and a destination computer (30) that participate in the call exchange information concerning the gain and the frequency characteristics response of the audio components of each participating computer. The parameters of the audio components of the source and/or destination computer are then adjusted to produce an audio signal having one or more desired characteristics.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 12, 1999
    Date of Patent: March 16, 2004
    Assignee: Siemens Information & Communication Networks, Inc.
    Inventors: Shmuel Shaffer, George E. Carter, William J. Beyda
  • Patent number: 6707887
    Abstract: Telephone equipment, such as a private branch exchange (PBX) is provided according to an implementation of the present invention. The telephone equipment includes one or more trunk interface cards. The trunk interface cards are configurable by software to operate with ground-start or loop-start trunks. According to the present invention, the trunk interface cards are controllable by software to determine which type of trunk they are connected to and to determine if the connected central office provides for far-end disconnection indication.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 16, 2001
    Date of Patent: March 16, 2004
    Assignee: Siemens Information and Communication Networks, Inc.
    Inventors: Bertram Geck, Francisco Olympio Marcon da Rocha
  • Patent number: 6700901
    Abstract: A communications system and interface (109, 210) for interfacing a proprietary digital telephone (108, 114) to a local area network (LAN) (104). The interface may be embodied in a computer expansion card or a stand-alone unit. The interface converts signals from the proprietary digital telephone's communication protocol to the LAN's communication protocol. In a specific embodiment, the LAN communication protocol is the H.323 protocol.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 9, 1998
    Date of Patent: March 2, 2004
    Assignee: Siemens Information & Communication Networks, Inc.
    Inventors: Shmuel Shaffer, William J. Beyda
  • Patent number: 6700969
    Abstract: A method and an apparatus for protecting call privacy across telecommunication networks allow a calling party of a first telecommunication network to control the privacy of a telephone call to a called party of a second telecommunication network. This is achieved by selecting among a group of privacy options that represent varying degrees of privacy, assigning each of the selected privacy options to the call, and enforcing the selected privacy options within the second telecommunication network, thereby eliminating the need for external enforcement. The privacy options selected for the call limit the ability of a called party to manipulate the call. For example, the privacy options may prevent the called party from forwarding the call, transferring the call, conferencing the call, and/or listening to the call via a hands-free speaker phone.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 15, 1999
    Date of Patent: March 2, 2004
    Assignee: Siemens Information & Communication Networks, Inc.
    Inventors: Shmuel Shaffer, William Joseph Beyda
  • Publication number: 20040037404
    Abstract: The present invention is directed to a system and method for implementing an intelligent redial system. A method for storing redial data for a connection between a user phone system and a remote phone system may include establishing a connection with the remote phone system by the user phone system. A timer is started in response to the established connection. At least one digit is dialed by a user and corresponding time data of the timer with the dialed digit is monitored. The monitored digit and corresponding time data is stored. The stored monitored digit and corresponding time data are suitable for performing a redial.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 23, 2002
    Publication date: February 26, 2004
    Applicant: Siemens Information and Communication Networks, Inc.
    Inventor: Anil Punjabi