WO2001013608A1 - Method for identifying characteristics of telephone lines - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention concerns a method for identifying characteristics of telephone lines in a telephone installation (1). The invention also concerns a router for implementing said method. The invention is characterised in that using the knowledge of at least one line number, the method consists in performing a call procedure using the known number(s) from all the lines of the telephone installation (1). The invention is applicable when a private telephone line is being installed or during its maintenance servicing or modification.

Description

 METHOD FOR RECOGNIZING THE CHARACTERISTICS OF TELEPHONE LINES

The present invention relates to a method for recognizing the characteristics of telephone lines in a telephone installation.

It also relates to a router capable of implementing said method. The invention will particularly find its application during the putting into service of a private telephone installation or during its modification or maintenance.

Indeed, during these operations, it is necessary to collect all the characteristics of the telephone installation in order to operate an efficient and reliable intervention. The characteristics of the telephone lines making up the installation are manifold. It can of course be the telephone number assigned to one or more lines.

It can also be the specialization of the line depending on whether it allows outgoing calls, incoming calls or both. It can also be groupings made between the different lines to which the same number is assigned. It can also be specific services such as those associated with teletax or a caller identification device.

According to the current state of the art, a search is carried out only manually of the characteristics of the lines of the telephone installation by means of the consultation of invoices or other documents where these characteristics are likely to appear.

This procedure is particularly not very advantageous. Indeed, it takes an extremely long time to implement. In addition, the result is not completely reliable because there is no assurance as to the collection of all the wanted and necessary information and the information collected cannot always be associated without error with the physical lines (copper wires) present. in the installation.

Consequently, the current interventions are long and difficult without obtaining a perfect result.

The present invention aims to overcome the drawbacks of current techniques.

First, it systematically recognizes all the characteristics of the installation's telephone lines.

Another object of the invention is to allow the automation of the process for recognizing technical characteristics. In this context, the method can be implemented by specific equipment here called router. This equipment, providing the link between the part of the public network and the private telephone installation, makes it possible to carry out the process of recognizing line characteristics. The invention also has the advantage of allowing the exploitation and use of known caller identification devices.

This identification service is very generally offered at present. Within the framework of the invention, it will make it possible to recognize the numbers of the lines of the installation.

Other objects and advantages will appear during the description which follows which is however given only for information.

The present invention relates to a method for recognizing the characteristics of telephone lines in a telephone installation, characterized in that, from the knowledge of at least one line number, a call procedure is carried out by the number or numbers known from all lines of the telephone system.

The method of the invention may include the following steps: the calling procedure includes detecting the presence of a dial tone when picking up each line, before dialing the known number (s), in order to determine whether the line is not faulty or not connected. the call procedure includes detecting the presence of a busy tone when picking up each line, prior to dialing the known number (s), in order to determine whether the line allows outgoing calls.

- we detect the presence of a busy tone when taking each line, after dialing a known number, to determine whether the known number called is assigned to said line.

- a call procedure is carried out, from the lines of the installation for which no assigned number is known, to a line provided with a caller identification device, in order to determine the numbers assigned to each telephone installation line. the line with a caller identification device is internal to the telephone system. the line with a caller identification device is external to the telephone system.

- It detects the presence of a ring on at least one line of the telephone installation after dialing a known number, in order to assign said known number to said line and determine that the line allows incoming calls.

- the line to which the known number has been assigned is kept looped and the presence of a ring tone on at least one other line of the telephone installation is detected after the known number is dialed, in order to determine whether the known number is assigned to other lines.

- that one or more voice frequency messages are sent from the line (Lk, Lk ') where a ring has been detected towards the calling line (Li), to check the operation of the communication.

Only when all the numbers (Nj) are known:

- we are looking for lines (Li) to which only one number is assigned (Nj), - we are looking for lines (Li) to which the same number is assigned (Nj),

- we assign a group number (h) (Gh) to the lines (Li) having the same number (Nj). The invention also relates to a router for implementing the method.

According to one embodiment, the router comprises means for memorizing the characteristics of recognized telephone lines.

The attached drawings are given as indicative and non-limiting examples. They represent a preferred embodiment according to the invention. They will allow the invention to be easily understood. Figure 1 presents a classic schematic view of a private telephone installation.

Figures 2 and 3 are flowcharts illustrating certain steps of the method according to the invention in a particular embodiment. As illustrated in FIG. 1, a telephone installation 1 commonly comprises different indoor stations 2 connected to a private switch 6 as well as isolated terminals 3.

The junction between the public network part 5 and the private telephone installation 1 is shown diagrammatically by a dotted line called the head of line.

At this level, a router can be installed whose function is to allow the establishment of the link between the operator part (public network part) and the private telephone installation 1.

Telephone installations 1 can be of a complex configuration, the lines being able to have different characteristics and to be presented with particular groupings or groupings. Monitoring of these characteristics is not often carried out and it is necessary to recognize the characteristics of the installation lines at each intervention.

The method described here after may be implemented by a router. This router will be equipped with automation means. These means will consist in particular of means for memorizing the characteristics of the recognized telephone lines, a non-volatile memory for storing the routine to be performed, a microprocessor and a random access memory.

The router being placed at the head end of the line 4, it is connected to the entire telephone installation 1 and allows interrogation according to the method described below to find all the characteristics of the lines, in a systematic and automated manner .

According to the invention, a call procedure is carried out by the known number or numbers Nj from all the lines Li of the telephone installation 1.

The appeal procedure can be broken down as follows:

- Li line socket: this is a connection to the Li telephone line

- obtaining or not a tone which may or may not be busy - if obtaining an unoccupied tone, dialing the known number Nj

- following this dialing, whether or not a busy tone is used or not

- if favorable, ringing on another line called line called Lk, Lk '.

To facilitate understanding and with reference to FIGS. 1, 2 and 3, the reference Li to the calling line, Lk to the called line, will be associated in the following description,

Nj to the number dialed, Lk 'to any other line called, Gh to a group.

The various entities referenced above are provided with an index i, k, j, k ', h, the variation interval of which depends on the configuration of the telephone installation 1. The variation interval of these indices depends on the number of lines in the installation, the number of numbers and the number of groupings of lines in installation 1.

In addition, certain possible characteristics of telephone lines will be referred to as follows: CLI indicating that the line is equipped with a caller identification device, SPA indicating that the line only allows outgoing calls (this is ie no calls can be received), SPB indicating that the line only allows incoming calls (ie the line cannot send calls).

The lines suitable for sending and receiving calls are called mixed lines.

According to the invention, it is possible to reconstruct all the characteristics of the telephone lines of the installation 1 from knowledge of at least one line number Nj.

This number knowledge can be obtained by manual search on invoices or other documents. Once a number is known, a call procedure is carried out using the number or numbers known from all the lines Li of the telephone installation 1.

The invention also makes it possible to search for the line number or numbers necessary for the call procedure by using the caller identification device CLI.

In this context, a call procedure is carried out from the lines of the installation Li for which no assigned number Nj is known to a line provided with a caller identification device CLI.

In this way, the number Nj assigned to each line Li of the installation 1 is determined. In a first embodiment, the called line provided with a device for identifying the CLI implant is internal to the telephone installation 1.

No call outside private telephone installation 1 is then necessary.

According to a second embodiment, the line provided with a caller identification device CLI is external to the installation 1. This embodiment will be chosen if none of the lines Li of the installation 1 are known as with a CLI caller identification device.

As illustrated in FIG. 2, the calling procedure can be used in the following way to detect the characteristics of the lines.

The procedure described below is repeated for all the Li lines of the installation.

Initially, the line calling Li is taken.

As soon as Li is taken, certain characteristics can already be detected: if there is an absence of tone, it can be deduced that Li is faulty or is not connected.

If a tone is detected during line seizure but it is a busy tone, it can be concluded that Li is a line with the SPB characteristic and therefore does not allow outgoing calls. It is then possible, if no busy tone is detected, to dial one of the numbers Nj of installation 1.

After this dialing, if a busy tone is detected, it can be deduced that the number Nj dialed is assigned to the calling Li line. If no busy tone is detected, there is normally a ringing on another Lk line in installation 1. In this context, either the Lk line has already been called, in which case the call procedure is carried out with other parameters the Lk line is for the first call, in which case the line Lk is picked up and voice frequency codes are issued (for example 3 voice frequency codes) to determine whether communication between line Li and line Lk is correct. This is the case if the voice frequency codes are received on Li.

At this stage, it has been concluded that the line Lk allows call reception and that the number Nj is assigned to Lk.

In the case where Lk has a caller identification device CLI, there is a reception of the number Nj on the station Lk. It is then easy to conclude that Lk has the characteristic of identifying the caller CLI and to know the number Nj assigned to the calling line Li.

If the number detected by means of the identification of the CLI implant is not known, it is added to the Nj numbers to launch call procedures from it.

According to the method, it can also be determined whether the known number Nj dialed is assigned to other lines Lk '.

To do this, after the calling procedure described above, the line called Lk is kept looped. By carrying out a new call procedure on line Li, it can be determined whether another line called Lk ′ is revealed.

To do this, as shown in Figure 2, we take the line Li and dial the number Nj again. If a busy tone is detected, it can be deduced that no other line Lk 'is assigned to the number Nj.

On the contrary, if there is a ringing on another line called Lk ', it can be deduced that the line Lk' is also corresponding to the number Nj. By repeating this operation, it is possible to determine all the lines Lk, Lk 'endowed with the same number Nj.

This call to a line called Lk 'also makes it possible to determine the characteristics of this line at the level of the identification of the caller CLI, as indicated in FIG. 2. It is also possible to check the good communication between Li and Lk 'by means of the transmission of voice frequency codes.

If a line Lk 'is detected, it is also concluded that the line Lk' allows call reception.

The diagram presented in Figure 2 includes different references to particular stages of the procedure.

These references are identified by the letters A and B. These connections in the call procedure allow a looping of the present process. In this way, all the steps described are repeated with all the lines Li Lk of the installation and all the known numbers Nj. It appears from the description made that the number of known numbers may be increased throughout the implementation of the process until it is finalized.

In certain cases, the installations 1 comprise lines Li grouped or grouped together so that they can be called by dialing the same number Nj.

It is important to determine which groupings are made and to classify the Li lines according to grouping numbers Gh.

To do this, the method according to the invention may include additional steps which are revealed on reading FIG. 3. In this context, once the preceding steps of the method have been carried out, each of the lines Li is reviewed.

Line Li may not have an assignment number Nj. In this case, the grouping operation is not performed. If the probed line Li has two assignment numbers Nj, if the line Li already has an assigned group number Gh, the grouping operation no longer has to be carried out. Otherwise, other lines are also sought including the assignment number Nj. If this is not the case, the group number 0 is assigned to Li, indicating that the line Li is the only one to include the number Nj. If another line is identified with the number Nj, these lines are assigned a grouping number Gh. One or more other lines can be detected with the number Nj.

Once this operation has been carried out, the entire grouping assignment procedure is repeated for a following Gh grouping.

In practice, the number of possible Gh groupings is limited in telephone installations 1. To take this technical limitation into account, an anomaly message can be triggered if the number of groupings found (h) is greater than a maximum value. According to the example, an anomaly is triggered as soon as the value h reaches the number 9.

Within the framework of the implementation of the method thus presented by means of a router, all of the recognition of the technical characteristics of the lines Li of the installation 1 will be carried out in a systematic and automatic manner. All line parameters can be determined with total reliability. This achieves a very significant technical progress compared to the purely manual interventions carried out until now. REFERENCES

1. Telephone installation

2. Indoor stations 3. Isolated terminals

4. Line head

5. Public network part

6. Private switch Nj: line number Li: calling line Lk, Lk ': line called Gh: Grouping

CLI Caller ID device SPB incoming call only SPA outgoing call only.

Claims

1. Method for recognizing the characteristics of telephone lines in a telephone installation (1), characterized in that, from the knowledge of at least one line number (Nj), a call procedure is carried out by the or the known numbers (Nj) from all the lines (Li) of the telephone installation.

2. Method according to claim 1 characterized in that the calling procedure comprises the detection of the presence of a tone when taking each line (Li), prior to the dialing of the known number (s) (Nj) , to determine if the line (Li) is not faulty or not connected.

3. Method according to any one of claims 1 or 2, characterized in that the calling procedure comprises the detection of the presence of a busy tone when taking each line (Li), prior to dialing known number (s) (Nj), to determine if the line (Li) allows outgoing calls.

4. Method according to any one of claims 1 to 3 characterized in that it detects the presence of a busy tone when taking each line (Li), after dialing a known number (Nj ), to determine if the known number (Nj) called is assigned to said line (Li).

5. Method according to any one of claims 1 to 4 characterized in that a call procedure is carried out from the lines (Li) of the installation (1) for which no assigned number is known ( Nj), to a line with a caller identification device (CLI), to determine the number (Nj) assigned to each line (Li) of the telephone installation.

6. Method according to claim 5 characterized in that the line provided with a caller identification device (CLI) is internal to the telephone installation (1).

7. Method according to claim 5 characterized in that the line provided with a caller identification device (CLI) is external to the telephone installation

(1) •

8. Method according to any one of claims 1 to 7 characterized in that it detects the presence of a ringtone on at least one line (Lk) of the telephone installation (1) after the composition of a known number (Nj), in order to assign said known number (Nj) to said line (Lk) and determine that the line (Lk) allows incoming calls.

9. Method according to claim 8 characterized in that the line (Lk) to which the known number (Nj) has been assigned is kept looped and that the presence of a ring tone on at least one other line is detected ( Lk ') of the telephone installation (1) after dialing the known number (Nj), in order to determine whether the known number (Nj) is assigned to other lines (Lk').

10. Method according to any one of claims 8 or 9, characterized in that one or more voice frequency messages are transmitted from the line (Lk, Lk ') where a ring tone has been detected towards the calling line (Li ), to check the functioning of the communication.

11. Method according to any one of claims 1 to 10 characterized in that only when all the numbers (Nj) are known:

- the lines (Li) to which a number (Nj) is assigned are sought,

- the lines (Li) to which the same number is assigned (Nj) are sought,

- we assign a group number (h) (Gh) to the lines (Li) having the same number (Nj).

12. Router for implementing the method according to any one of claims 1 to 11.

13. Router according to claim 12, characterized in that it comprises means for memorizing the characteristics of recognized telephone lines.