Emulation of private branch exchange behavior
View Patent ↗An apparatus and methods are disclosed for use by organizations that have PBXs at a plurality of sites. The invention pertains to cell phone calls from an to his or her “home” private branch exchange. For example, an employee who works at the Chicago branch office might call the Chicago office's PBX to invoke a feature such as setting up call forwarding, retrieving voice mail, etc. In the illustrative embodiment, such calls might be automatically and transparently directed to another PBX when it is advantageous to do so (e.g., for the purposes of security, reducing toll charges, because of unavailability of a particular PBX, etc.) Factors that might be used to determine whether to re-direct a call and to which PBX to re-direct a call include the day and time of the call, the network that the cell phone is currently connected to, etc.
1. A method comprising:
(a) receiving at a telecommunications terminal an input for placing a call to a first private branch exchange, wherein a telephone number M of said telecommunications terminal
(i) is not in the address space of said first private branch exchange, and
(ii) is mapped to a telephone number N in the address space of said first private branch exchange;
(b) placing, in response to said input, a call from said telecommunications terminal to a second private branch exchange whose address space does not contain M and does not contain a telephone number to which M is mapped; and
(c) receiving at said telecommunications terminal, in response to said call, a signal from said second private branch exchange in accordance with a profile associated with said telephone number N.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein said second private branch exchange is selected from a plurality of private branch exchanges based on the network to which said telecommunications terminal is connected.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein said profile is kept in persistent storage only at said first private branch exchange.
4. The method of claim 1 wherein said profile is kept in persistent storage only at one or more nodes that are not private branch exchanges.
5. The method of claim 1 wherein said profile is not stored at said second private branch exchange prior to said telecommunications terminal's previous call to said second private branch exchange.
6. A method comprising:
(a) receiving at a telecommunications terminal, at time t 1 , a first input for placing a call to a first private branch exchange, wherein a telephone number M of said telecommunications terminal
(i) is not in the address space of said first private branch exchange, and
(ii) is mapped to a telephone number N in the address space of said first private branch exchange;
(b) placing a call C 1 from said telecommunications terminal to said first private branch exchange in response to said first input;
(c) receiving at said telecommunications terminal, in response to said call C 1 , a signal from said first private branch exchange in accordance with a profile associated with said telephone number N;
(d) receiving at said telecommunications terminal, at time t 2 , a second input for placing a call to said first private branch exchange;
(d1) determining whether to direct the call instead to a second private branch exchange;
(e) placing, in response to said second input, a call C 2 from said telecommunications terminal to the second private branch exchange whose address space does not contain M and does not contain a telephone number to which M is mapped; and
(f) receiving at said telecommunications terminal, in response to said call C 2 , a signal from said second private branch exchange in accordance with said profile.
7. The method of claim 6 wherein said second private branch exchange is selected from a plurality of private branch exchanges based on the network to which said telecommunications terminal is connected at said time t 2 .
8. The method of claim 6 wherein said profile is kept in persistent storage only at said first private branch exchange.
9. The method of claim 6 wherein said profile is kept in persistent storage only at one or more nodes that are not private branch exchanges.
10. The method of claim 6 wherein said profile is not stored at said second private branch exchange prior to said telecommunications terminal's previous call to said second private branch exchange.
11. A method comprising:
(a) determining by use of a first signal whether it is advantageous for a wireless telecommunications terminal to direct a call to a first private branch exchange, wherein the determination is made in response to an input at said wireless telecommunications terminal for placing a call to a telephone number D that is in the address space of said first private branch exchange, and wherein a telephone number M of said wireless telecommunications terminal
(i) is not in the address space of said first private branch exchange, and
(ii) is mapped to a telephone number N in the address space of said first private branch exchange; and
(b) determining by use of a second signal whether it is advantageous for the wireless telecommunications terminal to direct a call to a second private branch exchange, wherein the determination is made in response to the input at said wireless telecommunications terminal for placing a call to said telephone number D, and wherein D is not in the address space of said second private branch exchange.
12. The method of claim 11 further comprising:
(c) transmitting from said first private branch exchange a third signal to said wireless telecommunications terminal in response to said first signal, wherein said third signal is in accordance with a profile that is associated with said telephone number N; and
(d) transmitting from said second private branch exchange a fourth signal to said wireless telecommunications terminal in response to said second signal, wherein said fourth signal is in accordance with said profile.
13. The method of claim 12 wherein said profile is kept in persistent storage only at said first private branch exchange.
14. The method of claim 12 wherein said profile is kept in persistent storage only at one or more nodes that are not private branch exchanges.
15. The method of claim 12 wherein said profile is not stored at said second private branch exchange prior to the first time said wireless telecommunications terminal transmits a signal to said second private branch exchange.
16. The method of claim 11 wherein said telephone number D is associated with a feature offered by said first private branch exchange.
17. The method of claim 12 further comprising:
(c) initiating a first execution of an authentication procedure in response to said first signal, to authenticate said wireless telecommunications terminal; and
(d) initiating a second execution of said authentication procedure in response to said third signal, to authenticate said wireless telecommunications terminal.
18. The method of claim 17 further comprising:
(e) transmitting from said first private branch exchange to said wireless telecommunications terminal, only after said first execution of said authentication procedure is successful, a third signal that is in accordance with a profile associated with said telephone number N; and
(f) transmitting from said second private branch exchange to said wireless telecommunications terminal, only after said second execution of said authentication procedure is successful, a fourth signal that is in accordance with said profile.
19. The method of claim 17 wherein at least one of said first execution and said second execution of said authentication procedure is conducted by a node that is not a private branch exchange.
20. The method of claim 17 wherein said first execution and said second execution of said authentication procedure are both conducted by said first private branch exchange.