Method and telecommunication system for initiating an enhanced communication connection

Abstract

The invention relates generally to a method for initiating an enhanced communication connection, between a calling party (A) and a called party (B), within a telecommunication network system comprising multiple interconnected networks, said enhanced communication connection comprising a circuit switched connection and a packet-switched connection, the method according to the invention is characterized in the steps of processing the setting up of said circuit-switched connection and said packet-switched connection based on one single response invoked by said called party (B). In one embodiment of the method the single response could be the pressing of a button or the selection of a displayed icon on a terminal.

Claims

1. A method for initiating a communication connection between a calling party and a called party within a telecommunication network system comprising multiple interconnected networks, said method comprising the steps of: initiating, in a circuit-switched network of the telecommunication network system, a circuit-switched connection between the calling party and the called party, and initiating, in a packet-switched network of the telecommunication network system, a packet-switched connection between the calling party and the called party; alerting a circuit-switched part of a terminal of said called party with a first alert signal about the initiation of said circuit-switched connection; alerting a packet-switched part of the terminal of said called party with a second alert signal about the initiation of said packet-switched connection; after alerting said called party with said first and second alert signals, receiving a circuit-switched response at the circuit-switched network and a packet-switched response at the packet-switched network, both the circuit-switched and packet-switched responses being triggered by a single response received at the terminal from the called party at one of the circuit-switched part and the packet-switched part of the terminal in response to said first and second alert signals; and based on the single response, indicating to the other one of the circuit-switched part and the packet-switched part of the terminal whether the terminal accepts establishment of a corresponding one of the circuit-switched or packet-switched connections, wherein the circuit-switched and packet-switched responses indicate to the respective circuit-switched and packet-switched networks: whether the circuit-switched part of the terminal accepts establishment of said circuit-switched connection, and whether the packet-switched part of the terminal accepts establishment of said packet-switched connection.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of accepting one of said circuit-switched connection or packet-switched connection and refusing said other one of said circuit-switched connection or packet-switched connection based on said single response.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: invoking one of said circuit-switched response or said packet-switched response based on said single response and invoking said other of said circuit-switched response or packet-switched response upon determining said one of said circuit-switched response or packet-switched response has been invoked.

4. The method according to claim 3, further comprising the step of invoking said other of said circuit-switched response or packet-switched response in the terminal of said called party.

5. The method according to claim 3, further comprising the step of invoking said other of said circuit-switched response or packet-switched response in the telecommunication network system.

6. A telecommunications system for initiating a communication connection between a calling party and a called party, the called party having a communications terminal capable of participating in a circuit-switched connection and a packet-switched connection, said telecommunications system comprising: multiple interconnected networks, wherein said telecommunications system is adapted for: initiating a circuit-switched connection and a packet-switched connection via separate ones of said multiple interconnected networks; alerting a circuit-switched part of the communications terminal of said called party about the initiating of said circuit-switched connection using a first alert signal and alerting a packet-switched part of the communications terminal of said called party about the initiating of said packet-switched connection using a second alert signal; and receiving a circuit-switched response at one of said multiple interconnected networks and a packet-switched response at another of said multiple interconnected networks, both the circuit-switched and packet-switched responses being triggered by a single response received from the called party at the terminal at one of the circuit-switched part and the packet-switched part of the communications terminal in response to said first and second alert signals; and based on the single response, indicating to the other one of the circuit-switched part and the packet-switched part of the communications terminal whether the communications terminal accepts establishment of a corresponding one of the circuit-switched or packet-switched connections, wherein the circuit-switched and packet-switched responses indicate to the respective first and second ones of said multiple interconnected networks: whether the packet-switched part of the terminal accepts establishment of said packet-switched connection, and whether the circuit-switched part of the terminal accepts establishment of said circuit-switched connection.

7. The telecommunications system according to claim 6, wherein said telecommunications system is adapted for invoking one of the circuit-switched response or the packet-switched response based on said single response and invoking said other of said circuit-switched response or packet-switched response upon determining said one of said circuit-switched response or packet-switched response has been invoked.

8. The telecommunications system according to claim 7, wherein said telecommunications system is adapted for the invoking of said other of said circuit-switched response or packet-switched response in the communications terminal of said called party.

9. The telecommunications system according to claim 7, wherein said telecommunications system is adapted for the invoking of said other of said circuit-switched response or packet-switched response in the telecommunications system.

10. A telecommunications device for use in a telecommunications system, the telecommunications system being configured for initiating a communication connection between a calling party and a called party associated with the telecommunications device, said telecommunications device comprising: a circuit-switched part adapted for receiving a first alert signal alerting the called party about initiation of a circuit-switched connection between the calling party and the called party; and a packet-switched part adapted for receiving a second alert signal alerting the called party about initiation of a packet-switched connection between the calling party and the called party, wherein said telecommunications device is adapted for: detecting a single response from said called party after the receipt of and in response to the first and second alert signals; generating a signal in one of said circuit-switched part or packet-switched part of the telecommunications device, triggered by said single response; transmitting said generated signal to the other of said circuit-switched part or packet-switched part, said generating signal indicating to the other of said circuit-switched part or packet-switched part whether said called party accepts establishment of a corresponding one of the circuit-switched or packet-switched connections; transmitting a circuit-switched response and a packet-switched response to the telecommunications system, both the circuit-switched and packet-switched responses being triggered by said single response, wherein the circuit-switched and packet-switched responses indicate to the telecommunications system: whether the packet-switched part of the terminal accepts establishment of said packet-switched connection, and whether the circuit-switched part of the terminal accepts establishment of said circuit-switched connection.

11. The telecommunications device as claimed in claim 10, wherein said telecommunications device is adapted for accepting both the circuit-switched connection and the packet-switched connection based on said generated signal.

12. The telecommunications device as claimed in claim 10, wherein said telecommunications device is adapted for refusing both the circuit-switched connection and the packet-switched connection based on said generated signal.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) The invention will now be described in more detail using the accompanying drawings, which show in:

(2) FIG. 1: a schematic overview of the signal sequence for setting-up an enhanced connection when alerting acceptance is performed on the B.sub.cs, part of the terminal;

(3) FIG. 2: a schematic, terminal based solution, overview of signal sequence for setting-up an enhanced connection when alerting acceptance is performed on the packet-switched part (B.sub.ps) of the terminal;

(4) FIG. 3: a schematic, terminal based solution, overview of signal sequence for setting-up an enhanced connection when alerting acceptance is performed on the packet-switched part (B.sub.ps) of the terminal and where the circuit-switched and packet-switched part of the terminal are separate units;

(5) FIG. 4: a schematic overview of signal sequences for setting-up an enhanced connection when alerting acceptance is performed on the circuit-switched part (B.sub.ps) of the terminal and where the circuit-switched and packet-switched part of the terminal are separate units.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

(6) The present invention can be incorporated in several embodiments to solve the above stated objectives of the invention, a first embodiment being based on the sending of the response information from one part of the terminal e.g. circuit-switched (B.sub.cs) part, to the other part of the terminal, e.g. packet-switched (B.sub.ps) part without the use of the communications network. A further embodiment being based on the sending of the response information from one part of the terminal e.g. B.sub.cs part, to the other part of the terminal, e.g. B.sub.ps by means of the communications network.

(7) The embodiments require that the communications terminal is capable of having a circuit-switched connection and packet-switched (or data) connection going on in parallel. The parts of the terminal involved with the circuit-switched connection and the packet-switched connection are identified by B.sub.cs and B.sub.ps respectively as can be seen in FIGS. 1-4. A generally accepted name used for this type of terminals is Dual Transfer Mode (DTM) terminal.

(8) In a first embodiment of the invention (FIGS. 1 and 2), the circuit-switched alert (1a) and packet-switched alert (1b) are sent to the communications terminal (20). The user of the terminal can invoke a single response (2) to the alerting by pressing for example a key (11) of a keypad or selecting a displayed icon (11b) or eventually by voice. It is also possible that the terminal automatically responds to the alerting after a certain time-out. If the alerting is accepted by the B.sub.cs part of the terminal, a signal (3) is generated indicating to the circuit-switched network (10a) that the alerting has been accepted, and also a signal (4) is generated indicating to the B.sub.ps part of the terminal that the alerting has been accepted. The B.sub.ps part of the terminal signals (5) to the packet-switched network (10b) that the alerting has been accepted. As this signal (5) is automatically generated there is no possibility that the packet-switched network (10b) keeps waiting for a response to its packet-switched alerting. This results in a faster enhanced connection set-up.

(9) In a similar way (FIGS. 2 and 3) a packet-switched alerting (1b) and circuit-switched alerting (1a) can be further processed by a single invoked response (2; 2) on the B.sub.ps part of the terminal (20) (FIG. 2). In this terminal based embodiment the B.sub.cs and B.sub.ps part of the terminal (20) can be physically one unit (FIGS. 1, 2) or separated units connected to each other by means of a wired or wireless connection (FIG. 3).

(10) The above description is not only valid for the accepting both the packet-switched and circuit-switched alerting (1b; 1a), but also for the rejection of the circuit-switched alerting and the acceptance of the packet-switched alerting, the acceptance of the circuit-switched alerting and the rejection of the packet-switched alerting and the rejection of both the circuit-switched and packet-switched alerting. This embodiment requires a new (maybe vendor-specific) API (Application Program Interface) through which for example the Bps part of the terminal can ask the Operating System (OS) of the terminal to be notified (4) when the circuit-switched part of the terminal has responded to an alerting.

(11) In another embodiment (FIG. 4), which is a network-based solution the response to the circuit-switched and packet-switched alert is delivered to the network (10).

(12) This signal (3) can be monitored in a service within the circuit-switched telephony network (10a). A service within this circuit-switched network can notify (4) the packet-switched network (10b). The packet-switched network (10b) can send a new message (indicated with reference numeral 4) or ANSWERED to the B.sub.ps part of the DTM-terminal. As a result of this signal notification (4) the packet-switched part of the network (10b) is informed of the acceptance of the alerting by the B.sub.cs part of the terminal. As this so-called packet-switched response (PSR) signal (5) is automatically generated there is no possibility that the packet-switched network (10b) keeps waiting for a response to its packet-switched alerting (1b). This results in a faster enhanced connection set-up.

(13) This embodiment requires an (standard or proprietary) extension to the packet-switched application and that the B.sub.ps part of the terminal must be upgraded. Since the packet-switched application can be implemented as a software package, e.g. Java 2 Platform Micro Edition (J2ME) application, each terminal that can download J2ME-applications can implement this embodiment. Because the interaction between the packet-switched part of the terminal and the circuit-switched part of the terminal is not handled within the terminal, but via the communications network (10, 10a, 10b), there are no requirements on API's within the terminal.

(14) This embodiment is applicable even when the circuit-switched part B.sub.cs and the packet-switched part B.sub.ps are physically on two different units, i.e. it does not require that the packet-switched application and the B.sub.cs part be implemented on the same terminal (FIG. 4). So, this embodiment allows for the possibility that the packet-switched application runs on a Personal Computer and the voice-call is delivered to a phone. Such a combination serves well to realize the long promised Computer Telephony Integration (CTI).