Telephone systems are installed throughout the world. It is currently in vogue to add enhanced services platforms to such existing systems, and these enhanced service platforms require access to databases, generally distributed databases.

The communications between a database and its server are generally carried out in one of several database languages which may be incompatible with the protocol of the existing telephone system. So long as the communication between database and its server is limited to a local area network, the protocol of the database communication is generally not a problem. However, the distribution and sharing of these databases among the telephone switches requires that the database data be formatted in the protocol of the telephone system if the telephone system is to be used for communication between the servers and the remote database.

This presents a particular problem when the telephone switch is to be provided with an enhanced services platform such a prepaid telephone calling card system in which significant amounts of data must be communicated between the various and often widely distributed parts of the enhanced services system over the telephone system.

In many parts of the world, communication between spaced apart telephone switches and a database is accomplished over wide area network or WAN systems. To avoid the delays associated with the transmitting of large blocks of data through the telephone switches, frame relays are often used.

However, many existing telephone systems desirous of enhanced services do not have an extensive frame relay system in place, and there is considerable expense associated with the installation of such a frame relay system.

Another prior art system known as the Signaling System 7 is also quite common. However, the protocols associated with such systems are generally incompatible with the formatting protocol associated with the transfer of data from the databases to the switch servers over the telephone lines.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a novel system and method for communicating the data required for the operation of an enhanced telephone service over an existing telephone system where the standard protocol for the management of databases and the transfer of data is incompatible with the standard format of the installed telephone system.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a novel system and method for sending database formatted information over preexisting telephone lines using the telephone system format for the communications.

It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a novel system and method of communicating between the various distributed parts of an enhanced services platform.

These and many other objects and advantages of the present invention will be readily apparent to one skilled in the art to which the invention pertains from a perusal of the claims, the appended drawings, and the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Figure 1 is a schematic drawing of a conventional SS7 system with multiple spaced telephone switches to which enhanced service platforms have been attached.

Figure 2 is a schematic drawing illustrating system data flow.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS With reference to Figure 1, a Signaling System 7 ("SS7") system is schematically illustrated as having the SS7 network 10 to which are connected a database 18 associated with running the SS7 system and a number of telephone switches 12,14 and 16 such as the Harris Corporation 20/20 telephone switch. The telephone switch 12 may include an enhanced services platform 20 such as the Harris Corporation prepaid telephone system described in application Serial No. 60/048,437 filed June 2, 1997 ("HPP"), the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference.

The HPP prepaid system 20 may include a local area network or LAN to which is connected a voice application server or VAS, a database DB, a database server DBS, and one or more other servers (not shown). The switch 14 may include all of the system elements of the HPP 20, but may not include the data base DB shown in the HPP 20, as one or more distributed databases may be shared by all of the HPPs in the system.

These databases may be located with the HPP 20 or otherwise distributed throughout the SS7 system, and may be co-located with the SS7 system database 18.

In the normal operation of the SS7 system, one of the switches 12,14 or 16 will need to communicate with a remote database such as the database 18. The standard for such communication in the SS7 system is the Message transfer Part ("MTP") into which is encapsulated into the Signaling Connection and Control Part ("SCCP") used to establish communication between the servers of at the various points of the SS7 system.

Encapsulated within the SCCP is the Transaction Capabilities Part or TCAP protocol, which formatting includes a standard TCAP header, a TCAP operation code, and a"database query"or message which may include either an"Invoke"or question and a"Return Result"or response. The TCAP header identifies the point in the SS7 system to which the message is addressed, and the TCAP operation code identifies the specific application server to which the remainder of the TCAP message, i. e., the database query, is addressed.

In an enhanced services system having a distributed database, the protocol used by the database server at any one of the switches 12,14 or 16 to communicate with the database 18 may be one of several standard database protocols such as the Open Data Base Connectivity or ODBC, a protocol which is incompatible with the protocol of the SS7 system. To address this problem, the system of the present invention encapsulates within the TCAP formatted message, the database queries (Invokes and Return Results) communicated between the database server at one point in the SS7 system to the database 18 at another point in the SS7 system.

The TCAP formatted message includes either a global or local operation code. One of the presently unused TCAP local operation codes may be used to designate an ODBC application server ("ODBC App. ") at a particular point in the SS7 system.

The presence of the ODBC operation code in the TCAP message will cause the ODBC Application running on the database server at the database 18 point in the SS7 system to receive and decapsulate the ODBC message therefrom so that the database may respond in the appropriate manner.

By encapsulating the ODBC formatted message in the TCAP formatted message, the incompatible ODBC formatted message becomes transparent to the SS7 system and may be transmitted between the database servers and the database over the trunks of the SS7 system.

Where for example as shown in Figure 1, the HPP system 20 includes a database associated specifically with the server at a telephone switch, the communication between the database server and the database may be by local area network rather than over the SS7 system. Because the database server and database are on the same LAN, they may communicate with each other in ODBC formatted messages without the necessity for encapsulation in to a TCAP formatted message.

However, it is often desirable to communicate between the database server at one point in the SS7 system and a database at another point in the SS7 system. With reference to Figure 2, a client 22 at one point in a SS7 system may include an application 24, an ODBC driver/manager 26 and a TCAP driver 28.

In operation, the application 24 initiates a database query in ODBC format. This Invoke is applied to the ODBC driver/manager 26 where it is encapsulated into the TCAP format and applied to the TCAP driver 28 for transmission to the SS7 system network 10.

When the TCAP message is received at a remote database server 30, it is applied through the TCAP driver 32 to the ODBC driver/manager 34 where the Invoke is converted into the ODBC format and communicated to the SQL or database driver 36 which controls the database 38. The process is reversed in communicating the Return Results from the database to the server. In this manner, the application 24 at the client 22 may communicate with the database 38 at the remote database server 30 in the standard ODBC format using the standard, but ODBC incompatible, TCAP format of the SS7 system network.

While preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described, it is to be understood that the embodiments described are illustrative only and the scope of the invention is to be defined solely by the appended claims when accorded a full range of equivalence, many variations and modifications naturally occurring to those of skill in the art from a perusal hereof.