Agent interworking protocol and call processing architecture for a communications system

Abstract

A call processing architecture treats a call connection as having two halves an originating half and a terminating half. An agent is associated with each call half, the originating agent being assigned by a switching center of a telecommunications system to establish the originating half of a call. The originating agent interacts with a translator and router to process the dated digits for a call to route the call to a terminating agent, the terminating agent establishing the terminating half of the call to complete the call connection. An agent interworking protocol (AIP) provides a generic superset protocol containing the common elements and unique elements for all call types so that an originating agent converts its call messages to the AIP and is connected to a terminating agent via an AIP connector, the terminating agent converting the AIP formatted call messages to the native protocol of the terminating agent. Agents for different call types are each able to convert call messages to or translate call messages from the agents's unique protocol to the AIP format and each type of agent does not need to know the type of agent being connected to as communication with other agents is via the AIP.

What is claimed is:  
     
       1. A method for establishing a call connection, comprising the steps of: 
       receiving a call request signal from a first communication system;  
       assigning an originating agent to establish a first call half connection with the first communication system;  
       processing the call request signal to generate a processed call request signal;  
       determining a route for the call connection as a function of the processed call request signal;  
       assigning a terminating agent as a function of the route, the terminating agent establishing a second call half connection with a destination of the call connection; and  
       connecting the originating agent and the terminating agent to establish the call connection.  
     
     
       2. The method according to claim  1 , wherein the call request signal includes dialed digits of a called party. 
     
     
       3. The method according to claim  1 , wherein the first communication system includes one of a PLMN and a PSTN. 
     
     
       4. The method according to claim  1 , wherein the originating agent and the terminating agent each include a software entity providing a call state machine for a predetermined call type. 
     
     
       5. The method according to claim  4 , wherein the predetermined call type includes one of GSM, ISUP, R2 and TUP. 
     
     
       6. The method according to claim  1 , wherein the steps of processing the call request signal and determining a route are performed via a translator and router function interacting with the originating agent. 
     
     
       7. The method according to claim  1 , wherein the step of connecting the originating agent and the terminating agent further includes connecting the originating agent to the terminating agent via one of a native protocol of the terminating agent and a generic protocol. 
     
     
       8. A method for establishing a call connection, comprising the steps of: 
       converting, in a first agent of a first communication system, a call setup message from a first agent format to a standard format;  
       transmitting the standard format call setup message to a second agent of the first communication system, the second agent being associated with a destination of the call connection; and  
       converting, in the second agent of the first communication system, the standard format call setup message to a second agent format call setup message.  
     
     
       9. The method according to claim  8 , wherein the first communication system and the destination of the call connection include one of a PLMN, a PSTN and an optical fiber telecommunication system. 
     
     
       10. The method according to claim  8 , wherein the first agent and the second agent include one of a mobile agcnt, an ISUP agent, a R2 agent and a TUP agent. 
     
     
       11. The method according to claim  8 , further comprising the steps of: 
       determining, via the second agent, that the call connection is to be redirected to a second destination;  
       converting the second agent format call setup message to the standard format;  
       transmitting the standard format call setup message to a third agent of the first communication system, the third agent being associated with the second destination of the call connection, and  
       converting, in the third agent of the first communication system, the standard format call setup message to a third agent format call setup message.  
     
     
       12. A memory for storing data for access by an application program being executed on a computer system, comprising: 
       a standard protocol object stored in the memory, the standard protocol object including a predetermined set of standard messages;  
       at least one unique protocol object stored in the memory, the at least one unique protocol object including a predetermined set of unique messages, each message in the predetermined set of standard messages corresponding to a respective one of the plurality of unique messages to provide a generic protocol to establish a call connection between a first processing agent and a second processing agent; and  
       a translation object stored in the memory to provide an association between the predetermined set of unique messages and the predetermined set of standard messages.  
     
     
       13. The memory according to claim  12 , wherein the at least one unique protocol object includes one of an ISUP protocol object, an R2 protocol object, a GSM protocol object and a TUP protocol object.