WO1999018710A2

WO1999018710A2 - Method and device in telecommunications system

Info

Publication number: WO1999018710A2
Application number: PCT/SE1998/001779
Authority: WO
Inventors: Jens LUNDSTRÖM; Robert Brlenic
Original assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget Lm Ericsson (Publ); Telia Ab (Publ)
Priority date: 1997-10-06
Filing date: 1998-10-02
Publication date: 1999-04-15
Also published as: SE9703634L; WO1999018710A3; SE9703634D0; AU9468498A; SE512178C2; EP1033025A2; AU751585B2

Abstract

A method in a telecommunication network is disclosed, in which a subscriber may be reached at more than one terminal, for connecting calls to the subscriber to the terminal at which the subscriber is currently located, said method comprising the following steps: detecting the terminal at which the subscriber currently selects to be reached; automatically setting a call forwarding function from the other terminals at which the subscriber may be reached to the terminal currently selected by the subscriber; forwarding any incoming calls to any one of said terminals to said currently selected terminal; resetting or cancelling the call forwarding function when the subscriber selects another terminal. A call forwarding agent adapted to register automatically for at least one first terminal at least one other terminal from which all incoming calls are to be forwarded to the first terminal is also disclosed.

Description

Method and device m t elecommunicat ions syst em Technical Field

The present invention relates to the routing of calls in telecommunication networks and in particular to the routing of calls to a particular subscriber to the subscriber's present location.

Background

In telecommunications today, while people are becoming more and more available, at the same time it is becoming increasingly difficult to known on what teirninal a particular person may be reached at any given time. It is now quite common that the same person may, at different times, be reachable, for example, on a Public Services Telephone Network (PSTN) telephone at home, a telephone in a business network or an ISDN telephone at work, a personal computer (PC) and a mobile telephone when not at any of these locations. To reach this person, a caller may have to keep track of five different numbers.

Several solutions attempt to solve this problem. A Universal Personal Telephone (UPT) number may be used. This, however, requires a subscription to the UPT service and a special number to be issued. The UPT number is normally not listed in the telephone directory, and is therefore hard to find. Also, a predetermined group of terminals are covered by the UPT number, and the user may add or remove terminals.

It is well known how to forward incoming calls to one telephone number to another telephone number. However, with the solutions known today, this must be done manually and can only be done from the telephone from which the calls are to be forwarded. Thus, forwarding from a number of different terminals would require manual actions in a number of different locations.

Patent application WHO 97/01918 describes a forwarding service, forwarding a call to one of several telephone numbers belonging to a subscriber, to the subscriber's mobile telephone if it is switched on. This service uses a paging principle, that is, if it is not known where the subscriber is at a given time, a paging message is sent to all terminals. When the subscriber answers at any of the telephones, the call is connected to this telephone. There is, therefore a delay in the set-up of the call. When the system knows what terminal the call should be forwarded to, a method called precision paging is used. It is not described in detail, and is only mentioned in connection with mobile telephones.

Summary of the Invention It is an object of the present invention to enable the routing of a call made to one of a number of terminals to a selected terminal in a telecommunication network.

It is another object of the invention to enable such routing without any delay.

It is still another object of the invention to enable flexible routing regarding the terminals from which calls are to be redirected and the terminal that is to receive the call.

It is yet another object to make the redirection of calls automatic and easy to estab- lish.

It is another object to enable a subscriber to be reached at his current location on any one of the ordinary telephone numbers on which he can normally be reached.

The above mentioned objects are achieved according to the invention by a method in a telecommunication network in which a subscriber may be reached at more than one terminal, for connecting calls to the subscriber to the terminal at which the subscriber is currently located, said method comprising the following steps: - detecting the terminal at which the subscriber currently selects to be reached; - automatically setting a call forwarding function from the other terminals at which the subscriber may be reached to the terminal currently selected by the subscriber;

- forwarding any incoming calls to any one of said terminals to said currently selected terminal;

- resetting or cancelling the call forwarding function when the subscriber selects another terminal.

If no terminal is selected, the call may be detected to an answering service or to a default terminal, or to the terminal to which calls were last connected.

More than one group of terminals may be specified, from which the calls are to be forwarded depending on the subscriber's choice at any given time.

A call forwarding agent adapted to register automatically for at least one first termi- nal at least one other terminal from which all incoming calls are to be forwarded to the first terminal, and a control node in a telecommunication network, comprising a call forwarding agent according to the invention are also disclosed.

The invention offers the following advantages:

It is a flexible solution in which one or more predetermined groups of telephone numbers from which calls are to be redirected may be specified, for example by letting each group of terminals be associated with a code. For example, one group may include all the numbers at which the subscriber may be reached for private purposes, whereas another group also includes the work telephone numbers.

The apparatus according to the invention is easy to operate, as all functions needed to redirect calls may be performed automatically, so that the subscriber need only, for example, lift the hook of the telephone to which calls are to be redirected, or turn it on, to effect the redirection.

The solution according to the invention will reduce the number of unsuccessful calls, and thus enable a more efficient use of the network resources.

When the user is unable to answer the telephone, incoming calls to all terminals used by the user may be redirected to the same answering service.

Brief Description of the Drawings

Figure 1 is a schematic drawing of a telecommunications network according to the invention.

Figure 2 is a flow chart of the actions performed to redirect calls according to one embodiment of the invention

Detailed Description of Embodiments

Figure 1 shows an overall telecommunication network comprising a PSTN network 1, a mobile telephony network 3, an ISDN network 5 and a business network 7. It will be obvious to the skilled person that this is only intended as an example. Of course, more than one network of the same kind may be used, as well as other network types such as data networks. Different types of terminals are connected to the networks: A first 9 and a second 11 telephone are connected to the PSTN network 1. A mobile telephone is connected, via a radio link, to the mobile telephony network 3, an ISDN terminal 15 is connected to the ISDN network 5, and a telephone 17 is connected to the business network.

As will be obvious to the skilled person, any kind of terminal used for telecommunications, including PCs with telephony equipment may be used with the invention. A call forwarding agent 19 is located in the overall network, in such a way that it can be reached from terminals connected to all the networks 1, 3, 5, 7, as shown by the bi-directional connections between the call forwarding agent 19 and each of the terminals 9, 11, 13, 15, 17.

Assuming that the telephones 11, 13, 15, 17 are all used by the same subscriber, at different times, according to the invention, incoming calls to any of these telephones should be redirected to the same number. This number may, however, vary. For example, when the user is in the office, incoming calls should be redirected to the of- fice telephone 17. When the user is at home, incoming calls should be redirected to the home telephone 11. When the user is not in any of these places, incoming calls should be redirected to the mobile telephone 13, or, for example, to an answering service, in the way common in the art.

Figure 2 is a flow chart of the actions performed to redirect calls according to one embodiment of the invention.

Step S 1 : The user initiates the forwarding of calls to one particular number. This may be done automatically, for example all calls may be forwarded to the mobile telephone when it is switched on. If the hook is lifted off one of the terminals, this may signal to the call forwarding agent that the calls should be forwarded to this terminal. Call forwarding may also be initiated manually, for example by dialling a particular code, or using speech recognition, or in any other way known in the art for communicating with the telecommunication network. Step S2: The user is allowed to select a group of terminals from which calls should be forwarded. This is an optional step, which may also be carried out at other times.

Different groups of terminals may be specified, for example including or not including the office telephone. The user may be prompted to select a group of terminals, or may initiate the selection himself. Step S3: The user is allowed to verify that call forwarding is to be effected from the specified group of telephones. This step is optional Step S4: Forwarding of calls from all terminals in the specified group of terminals is effected by the call forwarding agent.

When a call is made to one of the terminals in the specified group of telephones, the call will be automatically redirected to the selected terminal, usually the terminal from which the call forwarding was initiated.

It would also be possible to let the terminals detect electronically when the user is in the vicinity. WO/34985 describes a solution in which the user carries a device transmitting an identification signal which can be detected by telephones to deter- mine at what terminal the subscriber may be reached at any given time.

Authentication

To prevent unauthorized forwarding of calls, the call forwarding procedure can normally only be carried out from the terminal from which calls are to be for- warded. According to the invention it must be possible to initiate call forwarding from a several telephone numbers to one telephone number, from the latter number, i.e. the terminal at the number to which calls are to be forwarded.

One solution to this problem would be to specify certain numbers from which call forwarding for a particular terminal may be initiated, possibly with restrictions, so that calls may only be redirected to the terminal from which call forwarding is initiated. Using the situation shown in Figure 1 as an example, the mobile terminal, or, actually the SIM card inserted in the mobile terminal, may be registered as authorized to forward calls from the office telephone and the private PSTN tele- phone to itself. A priority order may be established, so that call forwarding initiated from one of the terminals would override call forwarding initiated from another terminal. For example the last change made will always be valid, or the change made from a specific number will always override all other changes regarding that terminal.

It may be feasible to restrict the number of persons allowed to initiate call forwarding from any given terminal, to avoid conflicts or confusion.

An identification code may also be associated with each terminal, so that call forwarding from that terminal may be initiated from any other terminal provided the correct code was entered. Of course, a combination of all three solutions is possible.

Claims

1. A method in a telecommunication network in which a subscriber may be reached at more than one terminal, for connecting calls to the subscriber to the terminal at which the subscriber is currently located, characterized by the following steps:

- detecting the terminal at which the subscriber currently selects to be reached;

- automatically setting a call forwarding function from the other terminals at which the subscriber may be reached to the terminal currently selected by the subscriber; - forwarding any incoming calls to any one of said terminals to said currently selected terminal;

2. A method according to claim 1, characterized by the step of connecting the call to an answering service, or to a default terminal, if no terminal is selected.

3. A method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized by the step of detecting the terminal at which the subscriber is currently located, when it is switched on, or when a call is made from this terminal, and considering this terminal the selected terminal.

4. A method according to claim 1, 2 or 3, characterized by the step of

- specifying more than one group of terminals from which the calls are to be for- warded depending on the subscriber's choice at any given time.

5. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized by the steps of - specifying, for each of the terminals at which the subscriber may be reached, at least one terminal from which call forwarding from at least one other terminal may be initiated automatically and

- storing this information so it can be accessed by the call forwarding function.

6. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized by the steps of

- specifying a code identifying the subscriber and storing it so that it can be accessed by the call forwarding function, and - entering this code each time a new terminal is to be selected by the subscriber.

7. A call forwarding agent for use in a telecommunications network, characterized in that it is adapted to register automatically for at least one first terminal at least one other terminal from which all incoming calls are to be forwarded to the first terminal.

8. A call forwarding agent according to claim 7, characterized in that it is adapted to verify a code entered from said first terminal to determine if the call forwarding is to be executed.

9. A control node in a telecommunication network, characterized in that it comprises

- a call forwarding agent according to claim 7 or 8.