168 results about "Cable telephony" patented technology

A 3G-camera phone (9) user may transfer photographic images from 3G-camera phone to an image viewing device (11) associated with a residential telephone (13) accessible on the PSTN telephone network (3). Both the image viewing device (11) and telephone (13) are connected to narrowband PTSN POTS telephone line (25). Through use of a call waiting (6) feature of the networks, data transfer is performed over a single narrowband PTSN POTS line with the voice conversation put on hold. Reciprocal image transmission is also possible. Like data transfers may also be made to telephone users having broadband DSL (45, 47 FIGS. 8 &10) or CATV (54, 57 FIGS. 9 &11) or VoIP (82, FIGS. 10 &11) services. An Internet (7) connected fileserver (15) uses a lookup table (23) to determine the kind of line to which the image viewing device is connected and select the appropriate routing for the image transfer.

The present invention provides a system and method for a reliable, low-cost, secure Internet Protocol (IP) based network that provides broadband-based voice communications as well as video and data communications. The IP network is arranged to function with the infrastructure of the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), to control telephone calls in SS7 type networks and to provide the features, applications, and services of the typical SS7 networks in a voice over IP network. The present invention supports large effective call volumes, allows accommodation of a wide range of broadband-based service platforms, provides flexibility to support current and future calling feature services, and provides high quality voice transmission.

A system and method for notifying an offline global computer network user of an online interaction in which the offline user could participate. The system and method specify notification criteria of the offline user, monitor activities occurring on the global computer network, compare the activities to the notification criteria, and, if the activities satisfy the notification criteria, forward an offline communication to the offline user, which notifies the offline user of the online interaction. Examples of the online interactions include chat rooms, game sites, instant messaging services, auctions, and calls made over the global computer network. Examples of the offline communication include calls to a wireline telephone, calls to a wireless telephone, messages to a caller identification device, messages to a wireless access protocol device, messages to a one-way pager, and messages to an interactive pager.

An integrated phone-based home gateway system. The integrated phone-based home gateway system is a multi-function wireless and wired networking, wireless and wired telephony, broadband, gateway device. It provides automatic wireless and wired broadband initialization, configuration and service provisioning, gateway, routing and bridging functionality, wireless and wired data and telephony functionality and allows resource sharing among multiple wireless and wired devices.

The present invention relates to an optical fiber access network, and more particularly, to a multi-purpose optical fiber access network capable of accepting all services provided by hybrid wireline / wireless access network.According to the present invention, in an optical fiber access network of double star structure where a central office / headend and several optical network units are connected through a splitting / combining device, a multi-purpose optical fiber access network capable of accepting not only wired telephone service, wired CATV and wired data service but also various kinds of wireless services including LMDS, WLL, PCS and so forth, in which LMDS local wireless base station is located in a place adjacent to the splitting / combining device, WLL local wireless base station is located in a place adjacent to the splitting / combining device, optical network unit connects the conventional wired network composed of said optical fiber access network, twisted pair and coaxial cable, telephone service, data service and CATV service are provided through the optical network unit and PCS local wireless base station is located in a place adjacent to the optical network unit, is provided.

Methods and systems for generating a pay-for-performance search result by advertiser(s), who may or may not have a website or internet presence, through the Internet, wireline, and / or mobile phone network, that directly connects users to the advertiser(s) over a communication channel (e.g. cellular, wireline, VoIP phone network). Method includes receiving a search request from a user through any networked device, which generates a matching list of search results from a database server. The method by which an advertiser(s) makes a bid amount on keyword(s) or search term(s) which if selected from the search results by the user, through any networked device, will directly connect the user to the advertiser(s) by calling the associated telephone number(s) or other communication ID# or channel (e.g. VoIP address) of the advertiser(s) selected (“Pay-Per-Call”).

A method and apparatus is present for achieving simple and inexpensive communications from wired phones to mobile or cell phones called a mobile phone extension. It is inexpensive because of flexible system architecture and simple hardware implementation. It allows phone calls to be made from wired phones over a cell phone. It is simple because audio signals from a microphone and speaker of a wired handset are connected to the mobile phone via a simple plug connection to the headset audio port. Alternatively, the system works with wireless connections between headsets and mobile phones. When the connection is made with a base station, it can be a wired or cordless phone or device acting as the base station. The disclosed system allows electronic apparatus to use a common mobile phone to link its communication instead of having an embedded phone separate from the user's personal phone. Other uses provide a means to communicate with a wireless headset while connecting audio from other devices such as audio devices such as players and records, and data devices. Even if the later is only speaker audio only, but it can contain microphone audio too. Thus useful apparatus and methods are claimed to connect mobile phones and wireless headsets with wired phone handset audio or other audio or video, and digital devices. One such audio player is the “I-Pod” known as a trademark of Apple Corporation. These devices can thus be connected with the disclosed interface, even when not using a wired phone, so audio from a cell phone and other devices can be received on the same headset. Use of gesture technology and particular command sets are also claimed for controlling devices using

A system for providing wireline telephone services to wireless subscribers utilizing a packet data network 100. The system includes a base station controller (BSC) 210 a base station controller gateway (BGW) 200 for providing client based services to mobile subscribers and providing protocol mapping between a mobile protocol and a packet data network protocol. The system further comprises a mobility gatekeeper (GK) 500 for managing network mobility services for each wireless call including the establishment of a call control path and a speech path between said base station controller and a serving end office telephone point. The system also comprises a end office gateway (EOGW) 300 for providing protocol conversion between the packet data network protocol and the end office point data protocol such that a wireless subscriber has access to all wireline services provided by the end office point. A mobile switching center (MSC) 410 and mobile switching center gateway (MGW) 400 are included to facilitate inter-system call handoffs into an existing circuit-switched wireless telephony network.

An apparatus for providing bifurcated voice and signaling traffic over a cable telephony architecture by segregating signaling traffic and voice traffic and transmitting the respective traffic over two different mediums to a switch to establish a phone call.

A method for verifying access authorization for voice telephony in a fixed network line or mobile telephone line, as well as a communications network having such access authorization verification are described. The access authorization is verified by analysis of a voice signal which was entered by the subscriber placing the call, before or during a call in progress. In one variant, the voice signal is entered as a password before the connection is established; in another variant, voice signals are analyzed for voice recognition and subscriber identification, the same voice signals also being transmitted to the person being called, making concealed access verification possible which does not hamper the normal flow of conversation.

Wireless telephones retrieve feature restrictions from a wires telephone network, the feature restrictions having associated predetermined conditions. A wireless telephone applies the feature restrictions if the predetermined conditions are met to disable functions at the wireless telephone as defined by the feature restrictions. For example, a wireless telephone disables camera operations if the position of the wireless phone is in an academic testing location during an academic testing period.

A monitoring system for purposes of enhancing independent living incorporates a wearable communication device, such as a cellular telephone, in combination with a recharging base which might be coupled to a wire line telephone system. Either or both of the base station and wearable device can be in communication with sensors scattered through an individual's residence for purposes of collecting data pertaining to activities of daily living. Either or both of the wearable unit and base station could incorporate sensors responsive to physiological parameters of the resident. Both units can independently communicate with third party monitors to communicate data about, or direct immediate attention to the state of an individual using the system.

A method and apparatus for modifying a telephone network to create a local area network over telephony (LAN / T) communication system network is disclosed. By coupling a broadband communication gateway and one or more client access devices to a wired telephone network, the telephone network can act as a LAN without interfering with ongoing telephony traffic.

A secure Internet Protocol (IP) telephony system, apparatus, and methods are disclosed. Communications over an IP telephony system can be secured by securing communications to and from a Cable Telephony Adapter (CTA). The system can include one or more CTAs, network servers, servers configured as signaling controllers, key distribution centers (KDC), and can include gateways that couple the IP telephony system to a Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). Each CTA can be configured as secure hardware and can be configured with multiple encryption keys that are used to communicate signaling or bearer channel communications. The KDC can be configured to periodically distribute symmetric encryption keys to secure communications between devices that have been provisioned to operate in the system and signaling controllers. The secure devices, such as the CTA, can communicate with other secure devices by establishing signaling and bearer channels that are encrypted with session specific symmetric keys derived from a symmetric key distributed by a signaling controller.

A method to use the data packet carrying ability of cable TV networks as described in DOCSIS to accurately and quickly transmit a voice call from a cable user to another user over a cable TV cable. The cable telephone, or cable modem, is given the ability to detect when voice activity from the subscriber is above and below a predetermined value. When the cable modem has voice activity, the cable modem knows that it will have a continuous stream of voice data packets which need to be sent very quickly and very accurately to the CMTS. Therefore, the cable modem requests a periodic stream of time slots from the CMTS. When the cable modem detects no voice activity or a silence period from the subscriber, the cable modem indicates that the periodic stream of time slots is no longer needed and the CMTS stops providing the periodic stream of time slots. When voice activity of the subscriber resumes, the cable modem again request the periodic stream of time slots, and transmits the voice data packets or cells in these time slots.

A cable infrastructure includes a plurality of cable modem circuits communicatively coupled to a cable network and associated with a corresponding one of a plurality of subscribers. Each of a plurality of telephones has both a POTS (Plain Old Telephone System) interface and a unique telephone number and associates with a corresponding one of the plurality of subscribers. Each of a plurality of interface circuits couples one of the plurality of cable modem circuits with a corresponding one of the plurality of telephones via the POTS interface. A head end system communicatively couples to the cable network, the public switched telephony network, and the Internet network and supports address mapping that enables communication exchanges between one of the plurality of telephones and an Internet telephony device. The address mapping also enables communication exchanges between telephones serviced by differing head ends via an Internet pathway that is independent of the public switched telephony network.

A radio telecommunications network for providing group extension phone service to a plurality of subscribers utilizing standard wireline telephones is disclosed. The network comprises a gateway mobile switching center (G-MSC) connected to an external communication network, a home location register (HLR) which includes a database of directory number (DN) categories, a serving mobile switching center / visited location register (MSC / VLR) which includes a plurality of cellular trunks in a pool configuration, a base station connected to the serving MSC / VLR, and a multi-line terminal (MLT) for connecting the plurality of standard wireline telephones to the base station. The MLT includes a cellular side for establishing a radio link to the base station, an office side for establishing wireline connections to the plurality of standard wireline telephones, and an interface between the cellular side and the office side.

The present invention features a docking station for connecting a conventional wireline telephone or system of conventional telephones to one or more handheld wireless telephones, enabling a conventional wireline telephone to send calls to and receive calls from a wireless telephone network. This arrangement can eliminate the requirement for a separate wireline telephone service. The wireless telephone may be easily removed from the docking station for independent use as a mobile wireless telephone. The docking station is provided with a specially configured removable connecting sleeve which may be used to connect a particular make and model of handheld wireless telephone to the docking station. The docking station may comprise more than one connecting sleeve so that more than one handheld wireless telephone may be accessed by a wireline telephone connected to the docking station. Docking station circuitry simulates the familiar conventional wireline telephone environment so that a conventional wireline telephone may access the wireless network in the same manner that landline telephone network is accessed.

A monitoring system for purposes of enhancing independent living incorporates a wearable communication device, such as a cellular telephone, in combination with a recharging base which might be coupled to a wire line telephone system. Either or both of the base station and wearable device can be in communication with sensors scattered through an individual's residence for purposes of collecting data pertaining to activities of daily living. Either or both of the wearable unit and base station could incorporate sensors responsive to physiological parameters of the resident. Both units can independently communicate with third party monitors to communicate data about, or direct immediate attention to the state of an individual using the system.

In-progress call transfer between a wireless telephone and a wired telephone is effected using a short-range wireless communication link between the devices. Each of the devices are provisioned to include a short-range radio or infrared transceiver so that the devices can communicate with each other over the short-range wireless communication link, preferably using a given short-range wireless protocol. When the wireless telephone's battery is almost exhausted, or for any other reason that the user may desire, the wireless telephone requests the wired telephone's phone number by communicating with wired telephone over the short-range wireless communication link. Upon receipt of the wired telephone's phone number the wireless telephone issues a call transfer request to a cellular base station, passing the wired telephone's phone number. The base station and the network then re-route the call to the wired telephone.

A subscriber normally uses telephone sets 1 and 2 and a facsimile machine 3 accommodated in a wired telephone network 4, a subscriber terminal unit 10 that is a handy phone accommodated in a low speed mobile communication network 5, and a subscriber terminal unit 11 that is a portable telephone set accommodated in a high speed mobile communication network 6. Each of the networks is connected to a home database 7 to which the subscriber has subscribed. The home database 7 shares mobility management information for tracking a subscriber to which a call is connected in the wired communication system and mobility management information for registering the location of the subscriber who travels in the mobile communication system. The home database 7 updates the mobility management information for tracking the location of the subscriber with a location registration update request signal issued by the subscriber and changes the subscriber tracking priority.

According to the invention, a telephonic communication system for integrating wireless phone service with home phone service is disclosed. The telephone communication system includes a first communication and second communication channels and a telephone switch. The first communication channel is coupled to a wireless phone and the second communication channel is coupled to an interface that is coupled to one or more wired phones at a user location. The first and second communication channels are accessible with a single telephone number. The telephone switch is coupled to the first and second communication channels and determines if the first and second communication channels should be simultaneously sent an incoming phone call directed to the telephone number.

An authenticating portable electronic device such as a cellular phone having radio frequency transmission capability, battery power and a keypad. The device further includes a biometric reader proximate the keypad of the device for authenticating the user of the device, as well as a transreceiver in the device for communicating authentication signals with a remote location to verify the identity of the user. Remote locations may be gates, doors or badge screening locations. Also included is a transmitter for sending signals to a transceiver receiver having a connection to a wire telephone system within a structure to permit phone calls using the device through the receiver to and from the wire telephone system. The device includes a connector for connecting to a docking cradle operably connected to a computer for authenticating the user before allowing access to the computer, which can also be the battery charging interface.

A telecommunication system comprises a first interface, a second interface, and a voice-over-Internet device. The first interface enables a telephonic handset coupled to the voice-over-Internet device to communicate via a phone service. The second interface enables the telephonic handset to communicate via a data network coupled to the voice-over-Internet device. The voice-over-Internet device is configured to modify the phone service. The voice-over-Internet device exposes services provided over the data network to service subscribers. As a result, a mobile or wired telephone service customer can subscribe to add-on services provided by a service provider over the data network without the knowledge or permission of the existing telephone service company.

An interconnect device for connecting a Bluetooth compliant cellular telephone to one or more wired telephones on an existing wired network. The interconnect device includes an interface to the wired network that emulates the behavior of a standard trunk line to a central office and includes a Bluetooth transceiver which communicates via short-range radio signaling with a Bluetooth transceiver in the cellular telephone. The interconnect device permits an outgoing call to be placed via the cellular telephone network from a conventional wired telephone by sending dial tone to the wired telephone when the cellular telephone is in range and not in use, accepting a called number from the wired telephone to the cellular telephone to initiate an outgoing call, and establishing a voice link between the wired telephone and the remote answering party via the Bluetooth transceivers and the cellular network. Incoming calls to the cellular phone are intercepted by the interconnect device which applies ringing signals to the connected wired telephones, any of which may be taken off-hook to answer the incoming cellular call.

Methods and systems provide a geographical network alarm viewer (GNAV) application that receives, tracks, aggregates, reports, and maps data associated with cable telephony services outages occurring in a cable services network. The GNAV application integrates network map data and identification information associated with customer locations, equipment, and associated network alarm data from a network operations center. All customer location addresses associated with individual network alarms are located and mapped on a geographical network map. Because the alarms are received, tracked, aggregated, reported, and mapped in real-time, service personnel may respond to network outages in a more efficient manner, and service technicians and service vehicles may be directed to repair service outages based on more accurate location and service outage timing data.

A system and method for reducing or entirely canceling background or environmental noise from a voice transmission from a communications device. A communications device, such as a voice over internet or voice over packets mobile or wire lined telephone or cordless telephone, is configured with an environmental noise counterbalanced (correction) signal generator that is connected between a microphone and a continuous time quadrant multiplication. The original output of the microphone and a counterbalanced (correction) signal generated by the environmental noise counterbalanced (correction) signal generator are mixed together prior to being passed to a transmitter. In one embodiment a discrete time unit (discrete time processing) block with or without signal processing is provided between the microphone and the continuous time quadrant multiplication to help synchronize the timing of the signals to be mixed. In another embodiment a second microphone is employed to detect environmental noise.

An authenticating portable electronic device such as a cellular phone having radio frequency transmission capability, battery power and a keypad. The device further includes a fingerprint reader proximate the keypad of the device for authenticating the user of the device, as well as a transreceiver in the device for communicating authentication signals with a remote location to verify the identity of the user. Remote locations may be gates, doors or badge screening locations. Also included is a transmitter for sending signals to a transceiver receiver having a connection to a wire telephone system within a structure to permit phone calls using the device through the receiver to and from the wire telephone system. The device includes a connector for connecting to a docking cradle operably connected to a computer for authenticating the user before allowing access to the computer, which can also be the battery charging interface.