Description of the Related Art General phone calls are made through a wired network, and radio phone calls are made through a radio network.

Recently, wire/radio phone calls can be commonly made. At present, the environment has been developed so that phone calls can be made between Internet endpoints. FIG. 1 is a view illustrating the relation between a general phone wire network A and an Internet wire network B. The general phone wire network A includes general phones 12 used by subscribers

to an exchange 11 such as Korea Communications that provides circuit lines through a switched circuit network (PSTN) 1.

The Internet wire network B includes computers 23 which connect to an Internet service provider (ISP) such as Chollian by dedicated lines through routers 22 provided by the Internet service provider 21, a packet network 30 which constitutes the Internet network for enabling Internet communications with another Internet service provider 21-1, and an interworking function device 40 for converting the packet network from the Internet service providers 21 and 21- 1 into a circuit network so that the packet network is connected to the circuit network 22. The subscribers to the general phones 12 communicate with each other through the exchange 11. The subscriber to the Internet service provider 21 requests and connect to another subscriber's number via the Internet service provider 21. In case of connecting to the user of a computer 23 with a modem through the general phone 12, the subscriber connects to the computer 22 having the corresponding IP through the interworking function device 40 to send/receive a mail or to make a phone call.

Meanwhile, as shown in FIG. 2, the radio network includes base stations 51, installed in respective divided areas, for sending/receiving data with mobile phones 54, base station controllers 52 for managing the respective base stations 51 in groups, and a mobile switching center 53 for

controlling the respective base station controller 52, recognizing clients'numbers, checking call charges, and performing an exchange function. The mobile switching center 53, for example, may be SK Telecom, and is connected to another mobile switching center 53-1 by code-converting data to mutually communicate with each other by agreement.

FIG. 3 is a view illustrating the combined construction of a wire network and a radio network. This combined wire/radio network includes a radio network C for enabling a mobile phone 54 to communicate through the base station 51, base station controller 52, and mobile switching center 53, a phone wire network A for enabling a user of a general wire phone 12 to make a phone call through a wire phone switching center 11 that is connected through the switching center 11 and the switched circuit network 1, and an Internet wire network B used by a user of a computer 23 who is subscribed as a member of an Internet service provider 21 such as, for example, Thrunet, for enabling the wire/radio connection by connecting to the wire phone switching center 11 and enabling the Internet connection by connecting to a packet network 30.

The Internet service provider 21 includes the switching center 11 and an interworking function device 40.

Meanwhile, as shown in FIG. 4, the network using Internet endpoints comprises a gate keeper 26 for recognizing IP addresses of computers (PC) 23, webphones 24, and PC

phones 25, a router 22 for performing a switching operation so that a plurality of gate keeper circuit lines are shared based on the addresses through the gate keeper 26, an Internet service provider 21 connected through the router 22, an Internet packet network 30 provided through the Internet service provider 21, a circuit network 1 for connecting the general phones 12 through the general wire phone switching center 11, a radio network C for enabling a mobile phone 54 to make a phone call through the base station, base station controller 51, and mobile switching center 53 and for enabling the mobile switching center to connect to the switched circuit network 1 to make a phone call to the general phone 12, and a gate way 28 for connecting the general wire phone switching center 11 or the mobile switching center 53 to the gate keeper 26 and for enabling the interconnection between the corresponding phone 12 or 54 and the Internet endpoint 29 by mutually converting the phone numbers of the general phone 12 using the circuit network and the mobile phone 54, and the Internet IP address.

In this case, the gate way 28 stores therein both the subscriber IP address of the Internet endpoint 29 and the phone number of the subscriber using the circuit network 1, and sends a call signal to the phone corresponding to the subscriber phone number through the general wire phone switching center 11 (or the radio (mobile) phone switching

center (53)). That is, in case of connecting to the circuit network 1, the gate way 28 performs the connection based on the telephone number, and incase of using the packet network 30 which is the Internet network, it performs the connection based on the IP address. For this, the gate way 28 is required to store both the IP address and the phone number.

In order to effect the phone call between the PC phones which are the Internet endpoints, as shown in FIG. 5, the PC phone 25 requests an IP address certification of the PC phone 25-1 to the gate keeper 26 (ARQ (1)). The gate keeper 26 informs the PC phone 25 whether the connection to the PC phone 25-1 is possible by comparing the IP of the PC phone 25-1 with the stored data ( (2)). Then, the PC phone 25 requests a set-up to the gate keeper 26, and based on this, the gate keeper sets up the state of the PC phone 25-1 ( (3) and (4)). Then, the PC phone 25-1 also requests the certification, and the gate keeper 26 accepts it ( (5) and (6)). If the acceptance is completed, the PC phone 25 and the PC phone 25-1 are connected to each other ( (7)).

In this case, the PC phone 25 means the Internet phone, and the Internet phone (for example, webphone) performs the interconnection basically by the Internet IP address.

However, since the IP (address) is not easy for an ordinary person to remember, and the IP is changed at any time in the LAN environment using a floating IP, it should be found using

a specified program (for example,"getLocalHost ()"function), and thus the ordinary person, who is not a programmer, cannot find out. In order to solve this problem, a number, which is similar to the general phone number, easy to remember, and convenient for use, is given to the Internet phone (i. e., webphone) instead of the IP, and for the actual phone call, the gate keeper 26, which is the phone switching device of the webphone, searches and transfers to the webphone the IP of the opposite endpoint using a mapping table (including IP addresses and Internet phone numbers) to effect the phone call by the IP address. However, according to the recommendations ITU-T, a designated item (field) (i. e., E. 164 number, e-mail number, and Alias name) is designated by a phone number which can be used instead of the IP. As an example of such a mapping structure, a table as shown in FIG.

6 includes fields of IP addresses 61, Alias names 62, e-mail numbers 63, phone numbers (E. 164) 64, and status 65.

FIG. 7 is a view illustrating a plurality of, i. e., two Internet phone service providers as shown in FIG. 4. As shown in FIG. 7, since the respective Internet service providers ISP1 and ISP2 employ their own Internet phone numbers, the Internet phone (i. e., Internet endpoint) subscriber of one Internet service provider ISP1 can make a phone call only with the subscriber of the corresponding Internet service provider ISP1, but cannot make a phone call with the

subscriber of another Internet service provider ISP2.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the invention is to solve the problems involved in the related art, and to provide a service method for an Internet phone number of voice over Internet protocol endpoints (VOIP) whereby independently operating Internet phone service providers maintain their own billing systems, respective users of Internet endpoints implement a unitedly recognizable phone number service through an Internet phone service server separately from the independent Internet phone service providers, and the user can designate and use the phone number of the Internet phone conveniently.

In accordance with the present invention, these objects are accomplished by providing a service method for an Internet phone number which implements an Internet phone number service server, and if a user request registration of an Internet phone number, a gate keeper converts the Internet phone number into a recognizable Internet phone number type, and stores the requested and converted phone number and the Internet phone number.

In one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a service method for an Internet phone number of voice over

Internet protocol endpoints (VOIP) for receiving the Internet phone number (E164 type) stored in a webphone from Internet phone service providers, and making a webphone to webphone call or webphone to general phone call, the method comprising a construction step of a user of the Internet phone number (E164 type) to be stored in the webphone constructing an Internet phone number sevice server for providing an Internet phone number service through an Internet network, a registration step of the user receiving the Internet phone number (E164 type) to be stored in the webphone from the Internet phone number server through the Internet network, and a guide step of the Internet phone number service server guiding the user to select the Internet phone service provider to which the user will pay phone charges by storing data of the respective Internet phone service providers.

According to the present invention, the Internet phone number registration step comprises the steps of reading out related information including input of the requested Internet phone number (E164 ID) for guiding the user's input in accordance with an initial display step, confirming if the readout data is the existing data, and if it is confirmed that the readout data is the existing data, moving to the initial display step, and storing the requested Internet phone number (E164 DB) if the readout data is not the existing data, wherein the storage step comprises a

conversion storage step of conversion-storing the requested Internet phone number (E164 DB) so that a gate keeper can recognize the phone number when the phone number is connected to the gate keeper during an Internet phone call using a structure parameter (sE164), a client information storage step of storing client information such as client address and so on using a client information parameter (s Address) inputted by the user, a billing information storage step of storing billing information using billing information parameter (s Bill Info) inputted by the user, and a gate keeper information storage step of storing gate keeper information that can be used by the user as gate keeper data (Gate Keeper IP) using gate keeper endpoint ID parameter (s_GK Info).

The conversion-storage step comprises the steps of performing a function of converting the requested Internet phone number (E164 ID) into a figure recognizable to the gate keeper to meet a recommendations ITU-T, and storing a structure parameter (sEl64) data and the converted phone number (nid) in an Internet phone number database (E164 DB) that constitutes the Internet phone number service server.

The step of performing a function of converting the requested Internet phone number into a figure recognizable to the gate keeper comprises the steps of comparing the Internet phone number (E164 ID (s-ID)) inputted by the user figure by

figure, if the figure is a character, converting the character into an ASCII code value corresponding to the character, and adding the converted value to the parameter (nid) for storing the converted value, if the figure is a numeral, adding the numeral to the parameter (nid) as it is, and repeating the selected addition as many as the figures in the phone number inputted by the user, and converting a resultant value into the Internet phone number (E164 Type ID) recognizable to the gate keeper.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The above objects, and other features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent after a reading of the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the drawings, in which: FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating the construction of a conventional wired network ; FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating the construction of a conventional radio network; FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating the construction of a conventional wire/radio and Internet network; FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a network construction using conventional Internet endpoints;

FIG. 5 is a view illustrating the order of a conventional IP certification through a gate keeper; FIG. 6 is a view illustrating an example of a mapping table representing the conventional communication recommendations ITU-T; FIG. 7 is a view illustrating the construction of a conventional Internet phone service provider; FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating the construction of the system according to the present invention ; FIG. 9 is a view illustrating the service construction according to the present invention; FIG. 10 is a view illustrating an example of an initial displayed picture provided by the Internet phone number service server controlling the present invention; FIG. 11 is a view illustrating an example of an initial displayed picture of a new request for a phone number for performing the present invention ; FIG. 12 is a view illustrating an example of a displayed picture for guiding the registration information change for performing the present invention; FIG. 13 is a view illustrating an example of a displayed picture for guiding the client information inquiry for performing the present invention; FIG. 14 is a flowchart illustrating an initial request process according to the present invention;

FIG. 15 is a flowchart illustrating a process of converting and storing a requested phone number according to the present invention; FIG. 16A is a view illustrating the structure of an Internet phone number database according to the present invention; FIG. 16B is a view illustrating the structure of an address database representing the addresses of the users of the Internet phone numbers according to the present invention; FIG. 16C is a view illustrating the structure of a service charge database representing the service charges of the users of the Internet phone numbers according to the present invention; FIG. 16D is a view illustrating the structure of a client information database representing the client information of the users of the Internet phone numbers ; FIG. 16E is a view illustrating the structure of a gate keeper database for enabling the user of the Internet phone number to receive the phone call service; FIG. 16F is a view illustrating the structure of a call information database representing the call information according to the present invention; and FIG. 17 is a view illustrating an example of a mapping table used in the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Hereinafter, a service method for an Internet phone number of VOIP in accordance with the present invention will be described with respect to embodiments illustrated in the annexed drawings.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating the related construction of the Internet phone number service server and the existing Internet phone service provider according to the present invention. Referring to FIG. 8, the system according to the present invention includes Internet phone service providers 70 and 71 for enabling mutual connection of endpoints (i. e., Internet phones) 29 through a gate keeper 26, and billing phone charges, and an Internet phone number service server 100 for requesting an Internet phone desired by an Internet phone subscriber to the corresponding Internet phone service providers 70 and 71 or a new Internet phone subscriber in the form of characters and numerals, converting the phone number into an Internet phone number type, and storing the converted Internet phone number.

FIG. 9 is a view illustrating the construction including the Internet phone number service server 100 and the corresponding database section 110 according to the present invention. Referring to FIG. 9, the database section

110 includes an Internet phone number database 111, an address database 112 for storing addresses of the existing areas, a client information database 113 for storing addresses of subscribers, a billing information for storing billing options of the subscribers, and a gate keeper service database 115 for storing converted standard Internet phone numbers which can be serviced by the gate keeper, and a call information database 116 for storing call records and time of the users.

The Internet phone number service server 100 includes a user computer 120 used by a general reserve subscriber who is newly requesting an Internet phone, and a subscription fee payment agent server 121 for serving as an agent for performing receipt of a phone number subscription fee by linking to the Internet phone number service server 100.

FIG. 10 is a view illustrating an example of an initial displayed picture provided by the Internet phone number service server 100 when the user connects to the server through the Internet communication network according to the present invention. As shown in FIG. 10, the displayed picture includes a new Internet phone number request section F1 for requesting the Internet phone number, a phone registration information change section F2, and a client information inquiry section F3 for inquiring the client information.

FIG. 11 is a view illustrating an example of an

initial displayed picture of a new request for a phone number when the user clicks the new request for a phone number according to the present invention. This displayed picture includes a request section Fll for requesting a desired Internet phone number.

FIG. 12 is a view illustrating an example of a displayed picture for changing the registration information of a phone number according to the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a view illustrating an example of a displayed picture representing the client information inquiry of FIG. 10.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart illustrating the whole operation of the Internet phone number service server according to the present invention. Referring to FIG. 14, if a subscriber, who intends to request the Internet phone number, connects to the Internet phone number service server in the Internet communication network through his/her private computer and opens an initial displayed picture, an initial displayed picture for selecting a menu as shown in FIG. 10 is displayed (step P10), and if the menu of the new phone number request section F1 is selected from the initial displayed picture, the server performs steps P21, P22, and P30 in order. The step of displaying the initial picture (step P10) includes the phone number registration step according to the new request for a phone number.

The Internet phone number registration step comprises the steps of reading out related information including input of the requested Internet phone number (E164 ID) for guiding the user's input in accordance with an initial display step (step P21), confirming if the readout data is the existing data, and if so, moving to the initial display step (step P22), and storing the requested Internet phone number if the readout data is not the existing data (step P30). The storage step (step P30) includes a conversion storage step of conversion-storing the requested Internet phone number (E164 DB) so that a gate keeper can recognize the phone number when the phone number is connected to the gate keeper during an Internet phone call using a structure parameter (s E164) (step P31), a client information storage step of storing client information such as client address and so on using a client information parameter (s-Address) inputted by the user (step P32), a billing information storage step of storing billing information using billing information parameter (s Bill Info) inputted by the user (step P33), and a gate keeper information storage step of storing gate keeper information that can be used by the user as gate keeper data (Gate Keeper IP) using gate keeper endpoint ID parameter (s GK Info) (step P34).

Specifically, if the new phone number request is selected at the initial display step (step P10), a displayed

picture (for example, as shown in FIG. 11) for the user's input of required information is displayed. Then, if the user inputs the required information and presses a registration request button F12, the Internet phone number (e_164) inputted by the subscriber is read, and it is checked if the inputted phone number is the already exising ID (ExistID (e_164)). If the requested phone number is the already existing ID, an information message indicating"Already existing ID"is displayed, and the process returns to the initial displayed picture (step P22). If the requested phone number is not the already existing ID, the data inputted onto the picture of FIG. 11 are read, the new phone number conversion and the construction of the structure parameter (sEl64) of the storage function for storing the requested phone number in the Internet phone number database (E164DB), which is required when connecting to the gate keeper 26 during the Internet phone calling, are performed, and then the requested phone number is stored with the structure parameter acting as a factor (step P31).

Thereafter, the structure parameter (i. e., information parameter) (s Address) of the input function of the client information database for storing the registration information of the requested phone number (E164ID) as shown in FIG. 16D) in the client information database is constructed and stored (step P32). This refers to the step of storing in the client

information database (see FIG. 16D) information related to the subscriber ID (E164ID) of the requested phone number (for example, resident registration number, client name, address, zip code, requested ID (E164ID), and ID (E164ID) to be used by the converted gate keeper (step P32).

Next, a billing database is formed by constructing the structure parameter (i. e., billing information parameter) (s_BìllInfo) of the input function of the billing database for storing the information related to the Internet phone charges as shown in FIG. 16C in the billing database (step P33). This refers to the step of storing information on the Internet phone number service request period and on the billing type as shown in FIG. 16C (registration period, amount for payment, payment type, requested ID (E164ID), payment day, period of use corresponding to the payment date, etc.), and this information is mainly used as a back data for the billing for the Internet phone number service.

Next, the structure parameter (i. e., gate keeper endpoint ID parameter) (sGKInfo) of the input function of the gate keeper service database for storing the phone number (E164ID) and serviceable gate keeper information in the gate keeper service database as shown in FIG. 16E (step P33). The ID requested to the gate keeper service database includes information on the useable gate keeper, and a plurality of useable gate keepers exist for an ID. This information

provides important information for registering the endpoint in the gate keeper that can provide optimum service (i. e., the construction of FIG. 5 produces a signal for searching and registering the gate keeper to which the phone call can be made at an initial start of the system, not during the phone calling). Thus, a useful information database for reducing the amount of network load loaded for finding the gate keeper when the endpoint is registered in the gate keeper can be constructed.

Meanwhile, if the registration information change section F2 as shown in FIG. 10 is pressed at the step P10, the picture for the phone number registration change as shown in FIG. 12 is displayed, and then the contents of the registration is displayed in relation to the ID (i. e., phone number) (E164ID) inputted by the user. If any correction is required for the information, the user can correct the contents. If the registration correction button F22 is pressed after the correction, the database related to the phone number (E164ID) is updated by the corrected contents.

Meanwhile, if a registration release button F23 is pressed, the field (isValid) of the database (E164DB) is changed to "False", and reception of any more service of the Internet phone number service server (IPNS) is refused.

Meanwhile, if the client information inquiry section F3 as shown in FIG. 10 is pressed at the step P10, a menu for

the client information inquiry as shown in FIG. 13 is displayed, which provides the inquiry functions of registration information, payment, and call figures. In this case, if the registration information inquiry section F31 is pressed, the information related to the phone number (E164) is displayed, and if the payment inquiry section F32 is pressed, the payment history such as period of use, payment date, payment type, amount for payment, accumulated amount for payment, etc. is displayed. If the call figure inquiry section F33 is pressed, the calling date, call origination, call destination, addressee, fees, etc. are displayed.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart illustrating the initial request process according to the present invention. This process performs the function (CreateE164 (s E164, s id, nid)), converts the phone number into figures to store the same.

The process of performing the function (CreateE164 (sE164, sid, nid)) includes the step of comparing the Internet phone number (E164 ID (sID)) inputted by the user figure by figure (step Q311), if the figure is a character, converting the character into an ASCII code value corresponding to the character, and adding the converted value to the parameter (nid) for storing the converted value (step Q312), if the figure is a numeral, adding the numeral to the parameter (nid) as it is (step Q313), and repeating the selected addition as many as the figures in the phone

number inputted by the user, and converting a resultant value into the Internet phone number (E164 Type ID) recognizable to the gate keeper (step Q314).

According to the above step (P31), the data inputted by the subscriber of the phone number is received as the structure parameter (sE164) including the registration information of the requested phone number (E164ID), and the phone number information (E164ID (s_E164, s_ìd)) inputted by the user, which is the member parameter of the structure parameter (sEl64), is converted into a phone number (E164ID) (i. e., converted value (nid)) composed of figures that meet the ITU-T recommendations and is recognizable to the gate keeper. Various methods of converting character portions of the phone number (E164ID) registered by the user into the figures may exist. In the embodiment of the present invention, for example, the Internet phone number (E164ID) (s_ID) inputted by the subscriber is compared figure by figure (step Q311). If the figure is a character (for example,"A"), the character is converted (sprintf (nid,"% s% d", nid, (int) c) into an ASCII code value (for example, A=65) corresponding to the character, and the converted value is added to the parameter (nid) for storing the converted value (step Q312). If the figure is a numeral, the numeral is added to the parameter (nid) as it is (step Q313). The selected addition process is repeated as many as

the figures of the phone number inputted by the user (step Q314), and the resultant value is converted into the Internet phone number (E164 Type ID) recognizable to the gate keeper (step Q31).

Next, the converted phone number and the member parameter values of the structure parameter (s E164) such as resident registration number, client name, name of region, city name, street name, sip code, requested phone number (E164ID), and converted phone number value (nid) in the phone number database (E164ID) (step Q41).

FIG. 17 is view illustrating an example of a mapping table representing the Internet webphone numbers used in the present invention. The mapping table includes fields of IP addresses 61, Alias names 62, e-mail numbers 63, phone numbers (E. 164) 64, and status 65 as in the conventional mapping table. According to the present invention, an addition section 100A for adding a symbol or character for recognizing the webphone to the head of the existing elements which constitute the respective field except for the IP addresses 61 and the status 65. Preferably, the addition section 100A may add numerals (0-9) or characters (#, *, and null). In this case, the character"null"means the same as the existing phone number (i. e., telephone company number, and mobile phone number) system. If needed, additional characters and symbols can be added to the end of the

existing phone number elements. Also, in case of the phone call from abroad to home and from home to abroad, if the numerals or characters for recognizing the webphone is added in front of the country code, they can be recognized as the webphone number.

As described above, according to the present invention, the Internet phone number service server is constructed so that the subscriber using the Internet phone can subscribe a desired Internet phone number, and if the subscriber requests the subscription through the constructed server, the server converts the phone number into figures to store the converted figures, thereby enabling the mutual phone calling among the Internet phone users subscribed to different Internet phone service providers. Also, since the Internet phone number service server confirms the duplicated subscription when registering the phone number, the standardization of the Internet phone numbers is possible. Also, since the Internet number service server provides the useable gate keeper information when the subscriber requests the Internet phone number, the time required for searching the connectable gate keeper at the start of the endpoint can be reduced, and the call connection time can be reduced by reducing the network load.

Although the preferred embodiment of the present invention has been disclosed for illustrative purposes, those

skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications, additions and substitutions are possible, without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention as disclosed in the accompanying claims.