Message routing with telecommunication number addressing and key management

Abstract

Methods, devices, signals, and systems are provided in a message routing architecture which provides improved capabilities for integrating “digital” communication through email messages with “analog” communication through voice and/or fax or pager messages. Email can be addressed using nothing more than a standard telephone or fax number. If the registered owner of the telephone or fax number has a corresponding email address, then the invention converts the telephone or fax number to the email address for delivery and uses standard email delivery systems to deliver the message. If no conventional delivery email address is known, or if the message sender or recipient specify multiple delivery modes, then the email message content is transformed into voice, pager and/or fax content and delivered to the recipient using the telephone or fax number which was specified as the email address. Familiar telecommunications services such as call forwarding and selective call blocking can also be used with messages that originate as email. The invention also supports use of telecommunications numbers as indexes into databases which contain public key certificates, to make it unnecessary for a proposed message recipient to provide its public key expressly in advance to each particular proposed message originator.

1 - 114 . (canceled)  
     
     
         115 . A method for facilitating secure communication, comprising the steps of: 
 collecting information which includes an authenticated telephone number; and    embedding the authenticated telephone number in a digital certificate;    whereby the method securely binds the authenticated telephone number to the digital certificate.    
     
     
         116 . The method of  claim 115 , further comprising using the embedded telephone number in place of a domain name in a messaging system.  
     
     
         117 . The method of  claim 115 , further comprising the step of using automatic number identification to authenticate the telephone number.  
     
     
         118 . The method of  claim 115 , further comprising the step of using biometric authentication to authenticate the telephone number.  
     
     
         119 . The method of  claim 115 , wherein the embedding step embeds the telephone number in a serial number field of the digital certificate.  
     
     
         120 . The method of  claim 115 , wherein the embedding step embeds the telephone number in an X.509 digital certificate.  
     
     
         121 . The method of  claim 115 , further comprising the step of using the telephone number to obtain a public key, whereby the method facilitates secure communication without requiring a prior key exchange.  
     
     
         122 . A method for facilitating secure communication, comprising the steps of: 
 collecting information which includes a telephone number;    using authentication to authenticate the telephone number; and    embedding the telephone number in a digital certificate, thereby securely binding the telephone number to the digital certificate.    
     
     
         123 . The method of  claim 122 , comprising authenticating the telephone number and then placing it in a database of telephone numbers which can be used in place of domain names for messaging.  
     
     
         124 . The method of  claim 122 , comprising authenticating the telephone number and then setting a delivery mode preference for a message which uses a telephone number in place of a domain name.  
     
     
         125 . The method of  claim 122 , wherein the step of using authentication authenticates the telephone number by using at least one of: biometric authentication, automatic number identification.  
     
     
         126 . The method of  claim 122 , wherein the step of collecting information also collects an individual's name corresponding to the telephone number.  
     
     
         127 . The method of  claim 122 , further comprising the step of using at least a portion of the collected information in a system for “any-to-any” communications.  
     
     
         128 . The method of  claim 122 , further comprising the step of using the embedded telephone number in place of a domain name for messaging.  
     
     
         129 . The method of  claim 122 , further comprising the step of using the embedded telephone number to obtain a corresponding public key from a database in which public keys are indexed by corresponding telephone numbers.  
     
     
         130 . A database produced at least in part by a method comprising the steps of: 
 collecting information which includes a telephone number;    using authentication to authenticate the collected telephone number; and    embedding the telephone number in a digital certificate;    wherein the database includes the authenticated telephone number securely bound to the digital certificate.    
     
     
         131 . The database of  claim 130 , in combination with a server, the combination residing within a system for “any-to-any” communications.  
     
     
         132 . The database of  claim 130 , wherein the database includes a public key corresponding to the telephone number.  
     
     
         133 . The database of  claim 130 , wherein the database includes a private key corresponding to the telephone number.  
     
     
         134 . The database of  claim 130 , wherein the database includes an X.509 digital certificate containing the telephone number.  
     
     
         135 . The database of  claim 130 , wherein the database includes a citizenship code corresponding to the telephone number.  
     
     
         136 . The database of  claim 130 , wherein the database includes a delivery mode setting corresponding to the telephone number.  
     
     
         137 . The database of  claim 130 , wherein the database includes an extension corresponding to the telephone number.  
     
     
         138 . The database of  claim 130 , wherein the telephone number authentication includes at least one of: biometric authentication, automatic number identification.  
     
     
         139 . The database of  claim 130 , wherein the database includes the telephone number as an identifier for looking up a public key.