Context-dependent call-feature selection

US5289535A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• AT&T Bell Laboratories · US

Inventors

• Frank J. Bogart · Boulder, US
• Bruce D. Butterfield · Broomfield, US
• David Chavez · Northglenn, US
• Henry C. Dittmer · Westminster, US
• Frederick R. Fix · Arvada, US
• Larry J. Hardouin · Westminster, US
• Nancy K. Schmidt · Broomfield, US
• Linda L. Thomson · Westminster, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Oct 31, 1991
• Grant date: Feb 22, 1994
• Expiry date: Oct 31, 2011

Classification

• Technology area (CPC H): Electricity
• CPC primary: H04Q2213/13547
• WIPO field: Telecommunications
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

Which call feature module, if any, is invoked in response to a user's input of a feature access code is made dependent upon the context in which the feature request is made, in a call-processing arrangement (200) that uses stored definitions of syntax (320, 350) and grammar (400, 410) of the network numbering plan. The syntax definitions are definitions (312) of individual symbol strings, including the feature access codes, and include the string's associated virtual node-point identifier (VNI 334) which indicates the string's influence on feature selections. A VNI (254) resulting from the VNIs of symbol strings included in the entire symbol sequence input by a user serves, along with parameters (1230, 1231, 1232) of the context, as a multi-dimensional pointer into a matrix (1202) of feature numbers (1203). The feature module (205) which corresponds to the feature number pointed to in the matrix by the pointer is then invoked and executed to provide a corresponding call feature.